The first anniversary of John McGahern's death is on Friday. Patsy McGarryrecalls the spirit of generosity in which his funeral took place
The rain began during the first glorious mystery, the Resurrection. It fell hard as John McGahern's neighbours filled in the precisely dug grave, wet clay clinging to their implements. He had asked that this be done in the presence of all. Moments before, his coffin had been lowered, water already collecting in a pool below.
For the first time in 61 years he lay again beside his beloved mother Susan, her name and date of death almost erased by time and rain from a stone that now marked the resting place of both.
Fr Éamonn Lynch, parish priest of Aughawillan, repeated the Hail Mary53 times with its resonant ". . . blessed art thou amongst women. . ." as he led the rosary while the chief mourners grieved. They were the five women in McGahern's life: his wife Madeline and his sisters Rosaleen, Margaret, Monica, and Dympna.
During his funeral Mass the simple altar had a small vase on either side, each holding daffodils, wild orchid, and windflower, such as he had picked for his mother in the lanes nearby.
It was with the naming of those flowers that he concluded Memoir. "I want no shadow to fall on her joy and deep trust in God. She would face no false reproaches. As we retraced our steps, I would pick for her the wild orchid and the windflower."
Maybe it was this desire to avoid any shadow being cast on his mother's deep trust in God which prompted him - an unbeliever - to allow the funeral Mass to be said and his Christian burial beside her afterwards. Or maybe it was his way of ensuring he would be buried with her.
In any case, it would appear to have been his final gesture to the woman whose loss so early emptied his young life.
To the end he remained sturdily honest. He, his cousin and friend of 30 years, Fr Liam Kelly, had in those last weeks "some precious time together when John talked openly about his impending death and the arrangements for his funeral", Fr Kelly said at the Mass.
It is to take no great liberty then to assume John himself was responsible for the inclusion of those uncompromising lines from Yeats's Oedipus at Colonusread at the end of Fr Kelly's homily.
"Endure what life God gives and ask no longer span. . . /Never to have lived is best, ancient writers say;/Never to have drawn the breath of life, never to have looked into the eye of day;/The second best's a gay goodnight and quickly turn away."
It was heartwarming to witness the manner in which the Catholic Church responded to this unbeliever's death. The breadth and generosity of its comforting embrace at his funeral contrasted so favourably with those grim days when neither unbaptised child nor suicide victim was allowed a funeral or Christian burial.
Seven priests officiated: Fr Lynch, Fr Michael Kelly, Fr Jason Murphy, Fr Gerry Comiskey, Fr Gerry Carroll, Fr Gerry Flynn, all from local parishes, as well as Fr Kelly, who is parish priest of Crosskeys in Cavan. We should salute them and others in the church who saw to it that compassion triumphed over what may remain of cruel rule and sour regulation.
It was also done with humour. After the burial Fr Lynch said he had been keeping an eye on the Dublin 4 types present during the rosary to see if any of their lips were moving. Before the Mass he had been caught out in a moment that would have delighted McGahern. As the crowd gathered it was clear that not everyone would fit in the church, so Fr Lynch speculated whether they should have a collection among those outside as well as inside. (There was no collection at the Mass, nor was one planned).
"We're near Cavan here," he said by way of explanation, as eyebrows were raised. Unbeknownst to him, McGahern's sister Rosaleen was standing nearby and had overheard. "My father was a Cavan man," she said, prompting a rapid shift in demeanour by Fr Lynch.
"He was a good man," she continued, a remark which, had he been there, might have precipitated a shift McGahern's own demeanour. Or maybe not. During the funeral Mass all his dead were prayed for, including his father, contrary to some reports.
The church's demeanour on the day was also a recognition of John's own generosity. "Even though he was treated badly [ by it] he never held any grudges or traces of bitterness. He was bigger than that," said Fr Kelly in his homily. In MemoirMcGahern wrote, "I have affection still and gratitude for my upbringing in the church: it was the sacred weather of my early life, and I could no more turn against it than I could turn on any deep part of myself."
So saying McGahern spoke for a growing number - those who have lost belief but value the legacy. Increasingly the church will be asked to deal with such people at critical moments in their lives and in death. It is to be hoped it will do so with the same warm generosity shown in Aughawillan on April 1st, 2006.