Final farewell to former GAA president Fanning

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen and President Mary McAleese were represented by their respective aides-de-camp at the funeral yesterday of former GAA president Pat Fanning in Waterford.

Top GAA administrators, together with players — past and present — from many counties, were among the attendance at St John’s Church for the funeral Mass.

Fanning died last Sunday at the Waterford Regional Hospital in his 92nd year. He had served as chairman of the Waterford County Board on three separate occasions, and then went on to become chairman of the Munster Council before realising a personal lifetime ambition when he assumed the presidency of the GAA in 1970.