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Family of former RTÉ head of news Wesley Boyd remember his ‘long and happy life’

His funeral was told that the family wanted to acknowledge a ‘life well lived’

Wesley Boyd

Olivia Kelleher
Sat Jun 17 2023 - 14:13

The loved ones of Wesley Boyd, former head of news at RTÉ, came together to celebrate his life at a funeral service in Dublin today, with his daughter Deirdre saying that her father’s life was best summed up by the Seamus Heaney poem Digging, as the pen and the spade were two major components in his “long and happy life”.

The native of Fermanagh, who resided in Mount Merrion in Dublin, died last Monday at St Vincent’s University Hospital. Mr Boyd is survived by his daughters Deirdre, Joanne and Helen and his son Brian.

The service heard that his “beloved” wife Marion died in the early months of the pandemic. The Boyd family said restrictions in place at that time had prevented them from celebrating the life of their mother in the manner in which they would have liked, so she was also in their thoughts as they paid tribute to their father. Mr and Mrs Boyd were predeceased by their son Peter, who died 20 years ago.

Speaking of Mr Boyd, celebrant Hugh Gormley said the family wanted to acknowledge a “life well lived”.

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“He would have been delighted that so many of you are here today to celebrate his life because that is what his family wanted. They wanted to acknowledge his life and to celebrate that life.

Wesley was very highly respected and regarded with deep affection by all of you. We can’t help but think of Marion and Peter today and hold them in our hearts. And those of us who have a faith… I would like to think of a reunion on the other side of the veil where they are meeting together again.”

Funeral prayers at the Victorian Chapel in Mount Jerome in Harold’s Cross were read from the Methodist prayer book.

In her eulogy Deirdre said that the career of her father in journalism was well known to mourners. For that reason she decided to focus on the upbringing of her father, which she said formed his character and the values that he passed on to his family.

She said that Wesley was at heart a “country boy”.

“He grew up between rural county Fermanagh and the urban streets of Belfast. And his heart was always in Fermanagh. He was also a child of the Second World War and of the Blitz. As was our mother who was growing up at the same time in Larne, Co Antrim.

Dad has actually written about this time. It did give him the opportunity to return to Co Fermanagh [from Belfast] as a child evacuee. There he, with his siblings, happily roamed the fields and the hills, hunted rabbits and herded the cows to market.”

Deirdre said her father was “always set” on being a journalist.

“His first job was at 18 as a junior reporter on the Tyrone Courier. It was another stint at a local newspaper The Larne Times that led him to meet our mother herself a daughter of a local journalist.

“They married in London in 1957 in what the time was termed a ‘mixed marriage’ as it was between a Methodist and a Catholic. For us the children of that marriage we have always appreciated our diverse heritage. Those years in London among the emigrant Irish community provided our parents with many of their livelong friends drawn from a vibrant, sometimes impoverished, group of writers, artists and journalists.”

Deirdre said it was a job at The Irish Times, and a strong desire to bring up their children in Ireland that had led her parents to join the flow of Irish emigrants returning from the UK to Dublin in the early 1960s.

She said that in his retirement her father returned to his rural roots approaching their “very modest suburban garden as though it were a multi acre estate”.

“We had flowers, we had herbs and vegetables galore. His oldest friend Jim, who is with us today, they knew each other from the Boy Scouts in Belfast, suggested a reading of the Seamus Heaney poem Digging [at the service].

“It is a beautiful piece of work that is all about the pen and the spade. These are the two instruments that my father made great use of during his long and happy life.”

Brian Boyd reads a few lines of Digging while music at the service included a rendition of Danny Boy and The Blue Hills of Antrim, with the latter having had a special significance for Wesley and Marion.

Mr Gormley said that Wesley never forgot his roots in Fermanagh and Belfast. He said that Mr Boyd adored his grandchildren Grace, Matthew and Erin and that he and Marion would be “happy grandparents” in heaven having seen them recite psalms at the service with such composure and dignity.

Mr Boyd worked as London editor of the Northern Whig until 1964. He subsequently moved to The Irish Times as diplomatic editor. He started working with RTÉ News in 1969 and served as director of news at RTÉ from 1974 to 1990. He was subsequently a director of developments at RTÉ and a regular contributor to An Irishman’s Diary in The Irish Times. He was also the father of The Irish Times NUJ chapel.

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