Except for the tolling of bells and the dirge of a piper, the town of Listowel in Co Kerry fell silent yesterday as one of its most renowned sons was buried.
The body of Bryan MacMahon, novelist, short story-writer, dramatist and folklorist, was brought to Listowel on Sunday last. Since then, thousands have paid homage to his memory and offered sympathy to his five sons: Garry, Jim, Bryan, Maurice and Owen.
Before the funeral ceremony, Mr Maurice MacMahon said the church congregation and the people of Listowel had gathered not in sadness but in celebration of his father's life.
"It is not a mournful occasion - he's among his own people and that's how he would have wanted it. He was proud of the fact that he had reached his 89th year. He was proud of it, and he went out like a warrior. His new collection of short stories, A Final Fling, is just out. He lived to see it in book form - that was a great thing."
The chief concelebrant of the Mass, which was sung in Irish by a choir from Siamsa Tire, the national folk theatre, was Canon James Linnane. In his homily, he also said that the ceremony was a celebration of Bryan MacMahon's life. But as well, he said, it was a salute to the "extraordinary talents" which God had given the writer. The people had gathered, Canon Linnane said, "to give thanks and praise to God for the life of a man of goodness, talent and achievement".
He was, as well as a family man, a teacher and a lover of all things Irish - Irish culture, sport and history. Canon Linnane added: "He was a deeply Christian man who will not only be remembered in his native Listowel, but much further afield. We thank God for the gift that was you, you were one of us, one of our own. You touched all our lives and the lives of so many people who visited Listowel. You had time for and interest in each one of us. Without doubt, you had the common touch".
As the hearse left St Mary's Church preceded by Seamus Hunt, a piper from the Newcastle West and District Pipe band, people lined the streets. Many shop windows in the town displayed portraits of the writer in tribute.
At 38 Church Street, his home, the cortege stopped in silence. Again, when it arrived at Scoil Realta na Maidne national school, where he taught for 43 years, and where his mother, Johanna, had taught before him, the cortege stopped.
Pupils and teachers lined the road outside the school, which overlooks the Listowel Old Cemetery, where Bryan MacMahon was buried.
At the graveside, his friend and fellow teacher, Mr Eamonn O Murchu, delivered the oration.
He said: "For many of us our relationship with Bryan began in the classroom. Bryan was a great teacher. The hallmarks of his particular style of teaching were respect and celebration - respect for the unique individuality of every pupil, irrespective of circumstances, and celebration of the unlimited, creative and imaginative potential that is within all pupils - if it can be identified, captured, nurtured and released.
"We were all valued by him for what we were and what we could achieve.
"Difference to Bryan was the expression of individuality, and that individuality had to be celebrated with story, poetry, ballads, pageantry and mystery . . . Bryan himself said: `A teacher leaves the track of his teeth on a parish for three generations'.
"He fashioned and moulded successive generations of pupils from his own home town into young people proud of their ancestry and with a sense of confidence that they could and would take their place in an Ireland and world full of promise and opportunity.
"Fortified in his belief in the limitless potential of the human mind, he glided from the world of human beings to the world of nature where he found `tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything'.
"And he penetrated us all with his own love of words, reading and literature, recognising that `no greater gift can be bestowed on a child than a love for reading'. "Bryan himself maintained that when teaching, one is drawing from the same reservoir of energy with which you write. And so we have the link between Master and Storyman, who defined the aim of his writing life as `a literary exploration of the elusive, almost unbearable ache that lies at the heart of humanity'. "His writings portrayed the simplicities and immensities of life; the fusion of opposites; conversations between men and women; the recognition of the innate goodness of the ordinary citizen; the noble tradition of a simple people fired with belief in themselves; the unfailing beauty and mystery of nature; the whisperings of people in love; the journey through the gap of life - all indications of a vibrant, searching, philosophical mind . . . We will miss you Bryan, walking the streets, greeting the people, sharing your company".
After the oration, Gabriel Fitzmaurice, poet and family friend, read from the lament for Padraig O Conaire by F.R. Higgins.
The reading included the lines: "They have paid their last respects in sad tobacco. And silent is this wakehouse now in its haze".
Bryan MacMahon had expressed the wish, Mr Fitzmaurice said, that lines from the poem should be read at his grave.
The President was represented by her aide-de-camp, Comdt Dermot O'Connor. Mr Denis Foley TD represented the Taoiseach. The mourners included some great figures in Kerry football - Mick O'Connell, Paidi O Se, Eoin Liston and Jimmy Deenihan TD.
Ms Kate Cruise O'Brien, who edited some of the writer's work, and Mr Philip McDermott, his publisher at Poolbeg, were also present, as was Mr Justice Hugh O'Flaherty of the Supreme Court.
Officials of the INTO, as well as sport and community associations throughout Kerry, were also there.