The crowds were perhaps a little thinner outside Dublin's Donnycarney church than had been expected for the removal service of the late Charles J Haughey. Thousands had earlier filed past the coffin in the mortuary chapel.
But inside, the church was packed with around 2,000 people, most of them almost certainly former constituents of the former taoiseach.
The remains of Charles Haughey are carried into the Church of Our Lady of Consolation in Donnycarney
President Mary McAleese, her husband Dr Martin McAleese, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Tanaiste Mary Harney, members of the Government, TDs and senators were present in great numbers to pay their respects.
Also present were Cardinal Desmond Connell, Bishop Eamonn Walsh, Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, and representatives of other churches and faiths.
Mr Haughey's good friend and former press secretary PJ Mara, on his way into the church, earlier stopped to say hello to his old adversaries in the media. They were camped outside on the grass on a sticky-hot evening, awaiting the nod that would allow them inside to record every detail of the state funeral.
The event was planned in great detail with what is believed to have been Mr Haughey's own strong input before his death. And it was indeed a memorable send-off for the man, few of those whose paths he crossed in even the smallest way will ever forget.
Fr Eoghan Haughey
The former taoiseach's brother, Fr Eoghan Haughey , joined Archbishop Diarmuid Martin during the service and spoke a few words after he read the Gospel, from
John 14
.
His voice and dipping intonation sometimes strangely resembling that of his late brother as it filled the huge church through the PA, Fr Eoghan said people had loved Charlie - 'Cathal' - for the "great human being he was and for the great humanity that was in him".
He remembered the concern he had for others. "We loved him for his courage and bravery, especially in his last illness," he said.
Fr Eoghan noted the great love and affection of friends and family for the late Charles Haughey, who had led an "extraordinary" life. "We thank God for his great accomplishments and achievements." And he asked pardon for his late brother's "human failings".
After the concluding prayer by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Fr Eoghan led a decade of the rosary as gaeilge.
The writer and poet Anthony Cronin, delivered a poignant personal reflection on his long-time friend's life and times. He opened with a Shakespeare poem, Fear no more the heat of the sun, which includes the lines:
Fear no more the lightning-flash,
Nor the all-dread thunder-stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou hast finished joy and moan;
All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.
No exorciser harm thee!
Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
Nothing ill come near thee!
Quiet consummation have;
And renowned be thy grave!
Mr Cronin also closed with a poem from Shakespeare, and many in the church may have remembered it was The Bard's lines Mr Haughey chose for his political epitaph when he resigned in 1992.
Mr Cronin said there was never a time in the 60 years he had known Charles Haughey that he regretted his friendship. He was a man "straightforward in his loyalties", his friend recalled. Mr Haughey had a rare sort of vitality, was "almost magnetic, like a field of force". He raised the temperature "a couple of degrees" when he came into company.
Mr Cronin recalled his late friend's contribution to Irish life, to the law, to economic activity in the State. And he remembered the "flamboyant" and the "contemplative" side of his friend.
No one would deny the "contradictions" in his character, Mr Cronin said. Many in the church contemplated the man, his life and, indeed, the contradictions. But it seemed, at a time of contemplation, that even the funeral of a former taoiseach isn't exempt from the inconsiderate few who cannot live without their mobile phones. On three occasions the solemnity of the occasion was punctured briefly by a loud ringtone, two of them apparently from the same phone.
Many hundreds of those present walked to the front of the church to pay their respects to the Haughey family and people again shared memories and Haughey anecdotes outside.
Mr Haughey will be buried at St Fintan's cemetery in Sutton tomorrow following mass at noon and a full state ceremony with military honours.