Musicians and friends bid farewell to Ronnie Drew

Ronnie Drew was buried today after a funeral ceremony that brought together many of Ireland’s finest musicians.

Actors, broadcasters, politicians, trade unionists and senior clergy also turned out in droves to pay their last respects to the folk legend who died on Saturday, aged 73.

The thronged Church of the Holy Rosary in Greystones, Co Wicklow, the small village where Drew lived with his wife, could not contain the number nor the emotion of mourners.

Hundreds had to squeeze into the parish hall, where a small screen was set up to relay the service, with many hundreds more gathering around the outside of the chapel to listen through speakers.

Shane McGowan from The Pogues, the aides de camp of President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Brian Cowan, and U2 manager Paul McGuinness were among around 1,500 people jostling for position.

The Dubliners, Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains, blues musician Don Baker, songwriter Phil Coulter and singers Mary Coughlan and Eleanor Shanley all performed during the one-hour ceremony.

Coughlan and Shanley opened the funeral service – which at times was more like a special tribute concert – with a New Orleans-style jazz hymn, 'Just A Closer Walk With Thee'.

Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin Eamonn Walsh praised parish curate Fr Dennis Quinn for having to walk a tightrope in getting the balance of the service right.

Drew’s son, Phelim, said: “I don’t think it would have been Dad’s funeral without there being a slight edge.”

The congregation erupted into spontaneous applause on several occasions, reacting to a funny or poignant tribute to the balladeer or in gut response to the sheer class of musicianship.

Throughout, prayers and thanksgivings were interspersed with traditional airs, laments, jazz instrumentals as well as toe-tapping renditions of folk songs made famous by Drew.

'Finnegan’s Wake' (about a man believed dead who was resurrected after being struck by whiskey at his wake) and 'Weile Waile' (about a woman hanged after stabbing her infant daughter) were among the tunes.

An instrumental reflection by The Dubliners, including original member Barney McKenna, was followed by a heart-wrenching version of 'The Parting Glass' by Eleanor Shanley and Mike Hanrahan.

Bishop Walsh, representing the Archbishop of Dublin, paid tribute to Drew, his humanity and the power of his music.

“There was a love and compassion and feeling for the person who got a hard hand in life that oozed through the gravely voice of Ronnie Drew,” he said.

“He elevated the words of the song so it became a sacred mantra.”

Phelim thanked those who helped his family’s grief before turning to his father’s “other family” – The Dubliners, jazz musicians, people from the showbusiness and pop worlds.

“They all rightly claim to be Ronnie’s brothers and sisters,” he said.

The actor quoted from a lament to Brendan Behan: “Words have no meaning now, silence is master, laughter and songs bow.”

Drew’s daughter, Cliodhna, chose the opening of Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s poem Ode as a tribute: “We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams.”

She said: “I’m not going to say too much about dad, just this poem, because to me he was a music maker, he was a dreamer of dreams – and he was certainly a mover and shaker.”

Fr Quinn said Drew would be met by his wife Deirdre, who died last year, and who he was buried alongside in Redford Cemetery, in Greystones, which overlooks the Irish Sea.

The curate recalled Drew talking about his wife after her death.

“I was married to a lady. I don’t know how she put up with me for so long. I wouldn’t have put up with me,” Drew told him.

“She kept me alive. She was a great one for helping lame ducks and there wasn’t a lamer duck than me.”

In a gesture to Drew’s dark humour, Bishop Walsh said everybody was invited to celebrate the legend’s passing afterwards at the exclusive Ritz Carlton hotel in Powerscourt, Co Wicklow.

“I’m not going to tell you the directions in case you all get there,” he said.