Funeral of Paul Tansey takes place

THE CHURCH of St Patrick in Monkstown, Co Dublin, was overflowing with friends, media colleagues, business leaders, academics and public representatives from across the decades, when they gathered to give thanks for the life of Paul Tansey, the economist and journalist, who died suddenly last Sunday, aged 59.

The chief mourners were Paul's wife, Olivia O'Leary, and their daughter, Emily. The simple, moving funeral Mass was graced by the singing of family friend and neighbour, Lucy Kelleher.

The celebrant, Fr Martin Clarke, said that Olivia had asked for one thing - "that you all join in the singing".

"Paul was everything to Olivia, just as Olivia was everything to Paul," he said.

They had both been looking forward to celebrating significant birthdays, while Emily, their only child, had paid her father the great accolade of following in his footsteps in her new working life as an economist.

Neil Tansey spoke of his older brother as a man who did so much to open doors for those whose talents were unrecognised and who was generous with his advice and guidance to young journalists and students: "Paul, former student radical, became the wise old owl."

As a journalist, he had been "absolutely scrupulous about the truth . . ." and would never countenance criticism of a friend.

He had "a real Rolls-Royce of a mind" that was as likely to be applied to who would win the 3.45 in Towcester as the latest economic crisis. He loved cats and dogs, a wager and a good holiday, horses, hunting, show-jumping, tennis, a game of poker and "the gentle art of rhetoric".

Together, he and Olivia, as economist and political journalist, "were chroniclers of the Irish story".

Emily, battling tears with her mother beside her, remembered a father who "believed in his head that I was four and that never changed . . .", as someone "who would try to be tough and hard but would hate to make people feel bad", and as a secret chocoholic who would come in to her in the middle of the night "looking like a six-foot seven-year-old", begging for chocolate.

He was a homebody who loved the garden - "Mum said as a vegetable gardener, he was a great economist . . ." - and he was "unbelievably stubborn and could never believe he was wrong".

Olivia thanked her husband "for 25 years of fun, laughter and love" and "for this tall daughter, the light of our lives". She finished with a quote from Louis McNeice's The Sunlight on the Garden - I'm "glad to have sat under thunder and rain with you, And grateful too for sunlight on the garden".

As Paul's coffin was carried out of the church, the congregation joined in a soft rendition of the old James Taylor song, You've Got a Friend.

President Mary McAleese sent her condolences and the Taoiseach - currently in the US - was represented by his aide de camp.

Among the many serving and former politicians present were Ruairí Quinn; Barry Andrews; Senator Shane Ross and his wife, broadcaster Ruth Buchanan; Cllr Niamh Bhreathnach; Senator Eugene Regan; Liz O'Donnell and Liam Cosgrave jnr.

Nick Robinson, husband of the former president; Frank Flannery, Fine Gael director of elections; and Noel Dorr, former secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs, were also present.

Also attending were economists Antóin Murphy and Seán Barrett; provost of Trinity College Dublin John Hegarty; Tom McCarthy and Frances Ruane from the Economic and Social Research Institute; Paul Sweeney, economic adviser to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions; John Horgan, the Press Ombudsman; Dr John Fennell and his wife, Dervla; John O'Shea of Goal; Fr Seán Healy of Cori, and former media colleague, Canon Patrick Comerford.

The business and horse worlds were represented by Joe Macri, chief executive officer of Microsoft Europe; Mark FitzGerald of Sherry FitzGerald; John Power of the Irish Hotels Federation; Jackie Whelan of Enterprise Ireland; Peter White and Brian Geoghegan, formerly of Ibec; Dermot Cantillon and Alexis Murphy, chairman and chief executive respectively of Tote Ireland; Alan Byrne, chief executive of the Racing Post; Bobby Lanigan, horsebreeder and formerly of Coolmore, and Ray Bates, formerly of the National Lottery.

Peter Murtagh, managing editor of The Irish Times attended as did business editor John McManus.

The many media friends and colleagues present included Fintan O'Toole; Renagh Holohan; Andrew Whitaker; Kevin Rafter; Nell McCafferty; Henry Kelly; Andy Pollak; Vincent Browne; Cathal Goan; Conor O'Clery; Helen Shaw; Kevin Healy; Fionnuala O Connor; Donal Kelly; John Armstrong; Mark Hennessy; Ingrid Miley; Fergal Keane; Bob Collins; Pat O'Hara; Brian Trench; Alan Ruddock; Ursula Halligan; Mary Wilson; Gerald Barry; David Nally; Eugene Murray; Peter Feeney; Colm Keena; Jackie Gallagher and Joe Jennings, former head of the Government Information Service.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times