Christie Hennessy did not seek fame or the cult of celebrity, and his considerable charity work was done behind the scenes, his memorial service heard yesterday.
He held to a commitment made as a young man not to drink or smoke, "a powerful example" in the current drink and drugs culture, the congregation heard.
Led through the streets of Tralee by a lone piper, the funeral cortege containing the ashes of the 62-year-old singer-songwriter, who died from asbestosis in London on December 10th, proceeded to the town's Rath cemetery, where the ashes were buried.
At St John's church in Tralee the three gifts brought to the altar by his daughters Hermione and Amber and son Tim included a guitar, a statue of Our Lady to symbolise his devotion to her, and the miniature messenger bike presented to him by the people of Tralee to mark his well-known song Messenger Boy.
The St John's parish choir directed by Msgr Pat Ahern sang at the Mass as did international soprano and Tralee native Miriam Murphy, accompanied by Aidan O'Carroll, founder of the Kerry School of Music.
Hermione sang Amazing Grace and singer Luka Bloom sang I Will Walk Beside You. Recordings of Christie's songs played, while the congregation sympathised with the family after Mass.
Msgr Dan O'Riordan told the congregation of up to 1,000 people that the singer was baptised in the church at four days old in November 1945, and had afterwards received his first Holy Communion and his Confirmation.
"You are no stranger to this place. You are among your own. Welcome home."
Christie would have been "very happy, but a bit embarrassed" by the large attendance, the priest said.
He was a "Christmas man" of joy and love and simple messages delivered from the heart, and a great communicator.
"Christie was a messenger boy in more ways than one," he added, speaking of his work for the Samaritans, the hospice foundation, and his visits to his old neighbours at Casement Avenue and to the ill in Tralee's hospitals on his visits home.
He was never bitter about his early circumstances and he had held to his commitment not to drink or smoke, "a powerful example " showing life could be lived to the full without drugs.
RTÉ broadcaster Aonghus McAnally told the congregation that Christie Hennessy was a "remarkable human being".
"He was the writer of some of the most delicately crafted and lyrically exquisite songs of our generation," Mr McAnally said.
Richard Wood of the charity Children in Crossfire, of which Christie Hennessy was the first patron, said everything that was good about Ireland was represented by Christie Hennessy.
Christie's wife Jill, who also led the scripture readings at the end of Mass, thanked the priests and the congregation at St John's and said he had a profound effect on other people, as a family man, a talented singer and also as a healer of many years standing.