A copy of the Sunday Times, a cookery book she once gave a friend, and a picture of her family were brought to the altar before the funeral Mass on Saturday of journalist and businesswoman, Fiona McHugh, in Dublin.
The former editor of the Sunday Times Irish edition, who left the role in 2005 to establish the Fallon & Byrne food business along with her husband Paul Byrne and restaurateur Brian Fallon, died from cancer on Wednesday, aged 57.
Ms McHugh was strongest, bravest, most loyal person he had ever met, Mr Byrne told his wife’s funeral mass in the Church of the Three Patrons, in Rathgar. They started seeing each other in 1998, when they began “the adventure of a lifetime.”
“There is a lot to be said for optimism and I think it was one of Fi’s most enduring characteristics, that and her sense of adventure,” he said.
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“She was always optimistic, sometimes blindly so. But whoever it was, it was one of the best gifts her parents, Norrie and Frank, could give to her. She had such great self-belief and it was infectious.
“All the McHugh family have this great positivity, and it has come in very handy over the last few months because we have been through some dark times together.”
Mr Byrne asked the congregation to bear with him as he began his eulogy, saying he had “lost my main scriptwriter and editor”.
The last time he had addressed a gathering had been at a wedding, where Ms McHugh had advised him to pick her out and address his words to her. “A little bit easier said than done today.”
Ms McHugh, whose late father served in United Nations peacekeeping missions, was born in Cyprus and spent her childhood there, in Israel, Lebanon, and Pakistan, before attending school in Ring College, Waterford, and Loreto on the Green, Dublin, where she made lifelong friends “who have been so good through this ordeal”.
Mr Byrne said that much had been written in recent days about his wife’s career in journalism and their adventures together in the retail and food business “but the one thing we really got right was our three fabulous kids, the absolute love of her life. We are so proud of them ... Kids, just go on and live your best versions of yourselves.”
Ms McHugh is survived by her husband, children Kate, Rory and Jack, her siblings, Peter, Karen, Orla and Emer, and extended family.
