'Fighter in the face of injustice': Kerry cervical cancer victim laid to rest

Joan Lucey died on Friday, the same day that the HSE and two laboratories committed to mediation talks in her CervicalCheck case

Joan Lucey, a retired nurse from Dingle in Co Kerry, was buried today. Joan had taken a High Court case against the HSE in relation to cervical smear tests.

Prayers for all those suffering from cancer were offered at the funeral Mass of Joan Lucey in her parish church in Dingle this afternoon, where the former district nurse was remembered as  “a fighter in the face of injustice”.

Joan, nee Brosnan, a retired nurse and widow, had taken legal action against the HSE over cervical smear tests but died on Friday, surrounded by her three children, before mediation started.

The mass at St Mary’s Church, where Joan's simple wicker coffin was before the altar, was concelebrated by parish priest Fr Michael Moynihan and family friend Fr Jim Sheehy.

Her son Sean told of his mother’s love of Dingle and the Irish language. Born at 6 Strand Street in 1948 to a fishing family and growing up in a different Dingle to what it is now, she had trained as a nurse at the North Infirmary and met her husband, Corkman Robbie Lucey. 

The couple married after a whirlwind romance. They soon moved to Zambia and worked there for several years before returning to live in Tralee for 20 years. They were known locally as a fun-loving and gregarious couple.

When Robbie became seriously ill at a young age, Joan cared for him. After Robbie passed away - and with three children aged eight, 16 and 19, - she “faced the challenge of her life” and moved to Dingle, retrained and started work as a district nurse.

“She really loved living in Dingle,” Sean said. She walked, swam, was in the film club and in the Dingle historical society.

As a district nurse in the community she touched the lives of many in west Kerry.

Her party piece was talking. “Mom really loved to talk,” he recalled.

She had many friends and two in particular Mary Curran and Aine Moriarty, former colleagues were thanked for their “endless support” to his mother.

The centre of her world was her family, including her extended family.

She had been a truly doting and loving wife to Robbie: “And Mom, we now know that you are finally back with Dad,” Sean said.

As a mother to himself, Sinead and Eileen there were not enough words to thank her, Sean said.

“This has been an extremely difficult time for us,” he said, thanking the people of Dingle, Kerry and beyond for their support.

Fr Moynihan said Joan Lucey was remembered as a woman who always rose to the occasion and who enjoyed the simple pleasures. She was a woman of courage, strength and bravery and “a fighter in the face of injustice,” he also said.

The priest prayed for all those affected by Covid-19, and all those suffering from cancer, especially women.

Hymns included the Latin Pie Jesu, and The Our Father was sung in Irish by one of Joan’s granddaughters.

She is survived by her children Sinead, Eileen and Sean, her sister Eileen and brother Sean, and grandchildren Isobel, Jane and Fiadh and son-in-law Jonathan.

Her internment took place at St Brendan’s Cemetery, Dingle.