Continuing a decades-old funeral tradition in Ringsend, the remains of poet Paul Durcan were carried across the river Dodder by locals and family members on the way to his requiem Mass at St Patrick‘s church on Thursday.
The motor cortege paused before the humpbacked bridge, where residents of the village greeted the Durcan family and then helped carry the coffin the rest of the journey, in tribute to a man who had lived among them for the past 30 years.
President Michael D Higgins was among the mourners who filled the church for the funeral, the music at which included a recording of Durcan’s typically spirited poetry reading on his 1990 duet with Van Morrison: In the Days Before Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Chief funeral celebrant Father Ivan Tonge cited the 12th century Book of Leinster, recently restored and now the subject of an exhibition in Trinity College Dublin, as evidence of the respect Ireland has always had for its poets, even “at the highest levels of society”.
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Durcan’s funeral continued that ancient tradition, Fr Tonge said. He was Ireland’s poet, but he was also Ringsend’s and a regular visitor to the church, as witnessed in the community’s moving tribute earlier.
Actor Mark O’Regan read Durcan‘s poem The Days of Surprise, which is set in St Patrick‘s on the day after the election of Pope Francis in 2013, and features a lovingly detailed description of the village, including the bridge:
The library with its Chinese granite benches,
The health centre, the Master Butcher’s,
Ferrari’s Takeaway, Spar,
The charity shop, the wine shop, the humpbacked bridge,
Under which, behind Ringsend Church, the River
Dodder flows,
Like a little mare over the last fence
At Cheltenham or Punchestown
Before it breasts the line at the winning post,
Its rider bent over double
Like the angel at the Annunciation,
And meets the River Liffey and the sea
Durcan’s daughter, Sarah, delivered a eulogy in which she said that managing to make a living out of poetry was probably her father’s greatest achievement.
But she recalled that he also had a great love of sport and liked to believe, had it not been for an early injury, he could have been a star football player.
He had also been pleasantly surprised by the number of grandchildren he eventually acquired and “struggled valiantly to keep up with them”.
Durcan especially enjoyed it when his poetry connected with young people, she said.
She recalled his special delight in the story of a Cork student some years ago who, of the prescribed poets on the curriculum, had studied only her father and promised that if the gamble paid off, he would get the name Paul Durcan “tattooed on his backside”.
Sure enough, Durcan did come up that year and, as widely shared on social media, the student got the tattoo.
As part of a reflection on her father’s life, Siabhra Durcan read an extract from Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. A close friend of the poet, Caitríona Crowe, read A Psalm of David. Michael John O’Neill read from St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians.
Soloist Katy Kelly sang Ag Críost an Síol. Violinist David O’Doherty played the traditional air, The Coolin/An Chúilfhionn.
Writers at the funeral included Rita Ann Higgins, Dermot Bolger, Mary Leland, Belinda McKeon, John O’Donnell and Gerard Smyth. The Patrick Kavanagh Centre in Inniskeen, whose annual poetry award helped launch Durcan‘s career, was represented by Una and Art Agnew.
Also in attendance were Arts Council director Maureen Kennelly, former TDs John Gormley and Conor Lenihan, journalists Mick Heaney and Paul Gillespie, broadcaster John Kelly, and the historian Charles Lysaght.
The poet’s remains were greeted at the church by Ballina uilleann piper Eamonn Walsh, and later carried out to the strains of Bob Dylan’s Paths of Victory. Durcan‘s deep connections with Mayo will be remembered at funeral prayers in St Mary’s Church, Westport, on Friday, after which he will be buried at the nearby Aughavale Cemetery.
