THE WORLDS of law, politics and business were represented at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Donnybrook, Dublin, yesterday for the funeral of senior counsel Colm Allen, who died suddenly on Friday.
The funeral Mass was celebrated by his friend of 25 years, Fr Dermod McCarthy, who described him as “taking up more space than his body inhabited”.
He told mourners that the funeral cortege had left the house for the short walk to the church to the strains of Tina Turner's Simply the Best, which Colm Allen had said he wanted sung at his funeral.
Fr McCarthy said he had received a call from a friend attending a conference in Australia, who asked him did he know a lawyer called Allen.
The friend said that one of the lawyer's more colourful contributions to the planning tribunal had been in the Sydney Morning Heraldas one of the quotes of the week. "Colm literally swelled with pride. And boy, could he swell," he said.
However, he said Colm Allen was also a very generous man and he recalled that every Christmas he would ask his friend and driver Paddy to drive around St Stephen’s Green and he gave a “substantial gift” to any homeless person he saw. “He was a big man with a big heart,” he said.
Colm Allen's sons Ben and David paid tribute to their father – Ben by singing Satisfied Mindand David in an often humorous series of recollections of his father. He spoke of his father's many passions, including fine wine and football, and added, to laughter, "and, of course, his yoga and Pilates".
The mourners were led by Mr Allen’s wife Amanda, sons David and Ben, his mother Mary and brothers Pádraig, Diarmuid, Seán and Liam.
Among the mourners were Mr Justice Liam McKechnie, Mr Justice Frank Murphy, Mr Justice Hugh Geoghegan and his wife High Court judge Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan. Politics was represented by the Ceann Comhairle, Seán Barrett, and Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan.
Among the many business people was his former client, builder Tom Bailey.