Highlighting inequity in death

Two funerals took place in Ireland yesterday, each getting public attention but for very different reasons.

Country and western entertainer Big Tom McBride was buried with great ceremony and affection in Oram, outside Castleblayney, Co Monaghan.

More than 2,000 people turned up to honour the man who had brought such joy for so very long, to so many lives.

His funeral was a deserved celebration of a life and talent fulfilled.

Brian Hamilton, comparatively unknown until he died in a chair in the emergency department of Tallaght Hospital and went unnoticed by staff for at least four hours, was buried after a funeral Mass in the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Drimnagh, Dublin.

He was just 40 and no matter how his tragedy is dressed up, no matter what excuses are made, it seems an indictment of us all.

Life is rarely fair and making this comparison may not be entirely fair either, but the contrast is so great that it can hardly be ignored.

Confronting growing inequality is becoming one of the imperatives of our time.