FIANNA FÁIL leader Micheál Martin yesterday paid a moving tribute to his late father, Paddy, at his funeral yesterday, describing him as someone who always championed the underdog.
“Paddy led an incredibly challenging, eventful, interesting and active life which we celebrate today – he had a great zest for life and a great sense of justice and he was always looking out for people in a less fortunate situation than himself,” said Mr Martin.
He recalled his father’s early life at Clankittane on the Old Youghal Road on Cork’s north side and how he lost both his parents within six months of each other when he was just 12.
He told mourners that his father told him about the anxiety the family felt when they feared the worst for his older brother, Phil, who had joined the British army, when Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1941, only to learn he had become a Japanese POW.
Mr Martin said his father had played football with St Nick’s and was a close friend of Jack Lynch and Christy Ring. While he reached three county finals, he had more success as a boxer.
“He loved all sports but he excelled at boxing,” said Mr Martin, recalling how his father had beaten British heavyweight champion Joe Bygreaves in a famous fight in Cork City Hall.
Mr Martin spoke of his father’s great love for his wife, Lana, and how he was heartbroken when she died in 2010.
Among the other mourners at the funeral Mass at Christ the King Church in Turners Cross in Cork, were Mr Martin’s other children – daughters Eileen and Mairéad and sons Pádraig and Seán, a Fianna Fáil councillor.