Luke Kelly
Thursday, February 2, 1984
Tributes paid to Luke Kelly
By Dick Grogan
LUKE KELLY'S people filled the Church of the Holy Child in Whitehall last night to keep a Dubliner company on the first stage of his final journey, ordinary people, workers, trade unionists, musicians, actors, friends.
They thronged the vast, vaulted expanses of one of north Dublin's largest churches and spilled over into the car park outside. Hundreds of cars followed the cortege for the removal of the body from the Richmond Hospital, through relentless rain and the inevitable chaos of the evening rush hour.
His three brothers and a fellow Dubliner, Barney McKenna, carried the coffin to its place beside the altar, and the wreaths piled up in rows beside it. The parish Administrator, Very Rev. Thomas O'Keeffe, paid tribute to the man who had "brought joy and happiness to so many through his song and music."
Fr. was father O'Keeffe, said, an opportunity to thank God for the gifts He had bestowed on Luke, and which Luke had used so unselfishly for others. Luke's singing had bound people together, broken down barriers between people, and built friendship and camaraderie.
Prayers were said by the Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, Dr James Kavanagh, Fr Michael O'Clery. Fr Joe Coulter, Fr Tom Stack and Fr Dan Breen.
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| Dr Kavanagh, Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, with Eamonn Mac Thontais (centre) and Ronnie Drew at the removal of the body of Luke Kelly, the musician, to Whitehall Church, Dublin, yesterday. (Photograph: Tom Lawlor). |
The congregation was a wide cross-section of the artistic and entertainment community, but was dominated by the plain people of the city. There were eminent figures of the theatrical world, like Siobhann McKenna, of the traditional music world, like Ciaran Mac Mathuna, and of the political world, like Michael D. Higgins and Brendan Halligan.
There were Wolfe Tones and Fureys and Chieftains. There were proprietors, or former proprietors of hostelries for long associated with the Dubliners, like Dessie Hynes of O'Donoghues and Mick McCarthy, of the Embankment.
Gael Linn was represented, the GAA and Comhaltas Ceoltoiri. There were wreaths from folk clubs, the Workers' Music Cooperative and scores of individuals. The coffin bore, too, the anonymous tribute of several solitary red roses.
Luke Kelly's beloved traditional music will be much in evidence at the funeral this morning after 10 o'clock Mass to Glasnevin Cemetery. There will be several pipers, an arrangement, with brass, of the "Ould Triangle," by part-time Dubliner Eamonn Campbell, and songs like "Raglan Road" and "The Prodigal Son."
The mourners were many. In the forefront were his wife, Deirdre O'Connell, his brothers, Paddy, Jimmy and John, and his sisters Mona and Bessie. And Luke's extended family and closest associates, Madeline Seiler, Dubliners Ronnie Drew, Ciaran Burke, John Sheehan and Barney McKenna, former Dubliner Jim McCann, and recent Dubliner Scan Cannon, footballer Pat Jennings, and a host of others, musicians, fans and simply friends.
There was little left to say, after the prayers and condolences, and John Sheehan said it: "So that's the end of an era."
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