Remembering Dr Maurice Hayes: ‘He treated everyone with the respect and dignity that people deserve’

It’s not everyone that has the President of Ireland attend their funeral, but Dr Maurice Hayes, who passed away at the age of 90 a couple of days before Christmas, lived enough for several men.

And it’s few enough men that would have their funeral mass celebrated in a Catholic Church, in this case St Patrick’s Church in Downpatrick, and — by his own request — be buried in the Church of Ireland Down Cathedral, not far from the reputed resting places of St Patrick and St Brigid.

That may have come as a surprise to some, but not to those that were familiar with Hayes’ lifetimes’ work in healing division in the North.