The late Tony Doyle was "that rare thing in the world of film production, a person of whom only good was spoken," mourners at the removal of his body in Dublin heard last night, writes Frank McNally. Father J. Linus Ryan, a former Carmelite Provincial and a friend of the Doyle family, said Doyle had been a "beacon of professionalism" throughout his career, as well as a "consummate gentleman" offstage and on.
Recalling the funeral last July of Donal McCann, Father Ryan told those gathered in Terenure College chapel that the same church had been called on in a short space of time to host the funeral of "another giant of the Irish theatre". Doyle's increased public profile of the past few years, in such films as A Love Divided and I Went Down, and in the BBC series Bally kissangel, had been only the culmination "of a life spent on stage", Father Ryan said. This and the well-deserved recognition for his finest performance - in the television version of John McGahern's novel Amongst Women - showed that this most professional of actors had, in a sense, "come home".
Father Jimmy Murray of Terenure College said Doyle's life had been short, but he spoke of the warmth, vitality and sense of humour which characterised it, in a man who "threw his creative spirit in lavish abandon before the camera".
Mourners at the church included his wife, Sally, and his six children. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, who in a message relayed by Father Ryan expressed regret at his inability to attend personally, was represented by his aide-de-camp, Capt Michael Kiernan. The author John McGahern was among the attendance, which also included RTE's managing director (television), Mr Joe Mulholland. The world of acting was widely represented, many of the mourners being former colleagues. They included Niall Toibin, Tom Hickey, Joe Lynch, Tina Kellegher, Ger Ryan, John Kavanagh, Jimmy Nesbitt, Victoria Smurfit, Johnny Murphy, Don Wycherley, Gerard McSorley, Donal Farmer and Michele Donoghue. The playwright Billy Roche and the singer Anne Bushnell were also there.
Father Dan Breen, parish priest in Avoca, Co Wicklow, the location for Ballykissangel, will deliver the homily today at the 10 a.m. funeral Mass, followed by cremation in Glasnevin.