Journalist Eugene Moloney, who was killed in a street attack in Dublin last month, was remembered today as “an enormously generous guy”.
His funeral Mass took place at the Our Lady Queen of Peace church on Dublin’s Merrion Road this morning. Burial will take place in Co Donegal tomorrow at St Mura's parish church, Fahan, on the Inishowen peninsula.
Mr Moloney (55) died following a blow to the head on Dublin’s Camden Street while walking home to Portobello Place on the morning of Sunday, June 24th.
His brother Sean Moloney explained how the family returned to Belfast in 1965 after their father John, from Tankardstown in Co Limerick, died in Birmingham.
Peig, their mother, had a sister in Belfast, where they attended St Malachy’s. In later years they lived at Fahan in Co Donegal, where Eugene was a regular visitor, particularly before Peig died in 2007.
In a homily at the Mass parish priest, Fr Fergus O’Connor recalled Mr Moloney’s “gentleness, thoughtfulness,….(and) his nieces, nephews and cousins who were particular beneficiaries of his generosity.”
Music was by harpist Deirdre Seaver and the Lost Brothers, including Mr Moloney’s nephew Oisin Leech.
As the coffin was wheeled down the aisle after the Mass, the Lost Brothers sang one of Eugene Moloney’s favourite songs, Bob Dylan’s Forever Young. Fr O’Connor said it “typified for many what Eugene was”.
As the coffin left the church, there was prolonged applause from the large congregation, which was made up mainly of Mr Moloney’s many friends and colleagues in the Irish media.
His trademark hat, which rested on the coffin during the funeral Mass, is to be buried with him in Fahan tomorrow.
Chief mourners at this morning’s Mass were Eugene Moloney’s brother Sean, his sister Rosin, and girlfriend Chichi Tran.
Speaking after the Mass, Irish News editor Noel Doran said he first met Mr Moloney 35 years ago at the College of Business Studies in Belfast. “He wore this big grey leather jacket which he probably had bought in a second hand shop.”
In later years they worked together reporting on the Troubles until the early 1990s, when Mr Moloney began working with the Irish Independent in Dublin. “Eugene remained the same today as then, which was kind of reassuring,” Mr Doran said. “He was unaffected by the 21st century….he walked all over Belfast during the Troubles as if nothing was happening.”
NUJ general secretary Seamus Dooley said he worked with Mr Moloney for nine years at the Irish Independent. “Eugene called it ‘the Mother Teresa shift’. [Irish Independent editor Vinny Doyle] and himself would have these long conversations about travelling. The whole world could be falling apart and Vinny would tell the rest of us ‘keep an eye out for Mother Teresa’ (who was dying at the time) while they chatted on.”
Mr Moloney was “an enormously generous guy” who was also given to mischievous contributions at union meetings, he said.
Gary Burch (21), of Kennington Close Templeogue, Dublin, was charged last week with Mr Moloney’s manslaughter.