Funeral of former Irish Times picture editor told he ‘lived life to the fullest’

A camera was the first symbol brought to the altar at the outset of the funeral mass for the multi-award winning photographer and former picture editor of The Irish Times, Peter Thursfield, at Terenure College Chapel in Dublin on Monday.

After family and friends, his great loves were photography, cooking and Terenure Rugby Club, his daughter Katie said in her eulogy to the congregation.

The funeral was attended by family, friends and neighbours, including many former colleagues from The Irish Times, the news photography profession and journalism generally.

Mr Thursfield (77) was a “very talented man”, said Fr Tom Clowe SDB, who celebrated the mass. “Peter was a talented photographer, had a lovely singing voice, loved to cook, to travel the French countryside sampling food and wine, and to look after others.”

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“He was a man who lived life to the fullest and jumped at every opportunity and chance that came his way,” Kate said.

“We were blessed to have him.”

Originally from South Shields, England, her father never lost his “Geordie” accent but it was only when he was talking to his brother Tony that it would get so strong the family would stop understanding him, she said.

Her father was always there for her and her sisters when they were teenagers, staying up late to collect them and their friends and drive them home.

Having an award-winning father when a teenager was “interesting”, as he would seek to have his daughters act naturally while he took pictures of them and their friends, but it had provided them with many photographs which they now treasured.

“His love for us was endless and ours for him,” she said. His greatest love was his wife Rosie.

Along with his family and friends, her father was devoted to the craft of photography, while another “passion” was French cooking. Countless hours had been spent around the kitchen table enjoying meals and each other’s company. One of her father’s favourite chefs had said putting a freshly cooked meal on the table in front of someone was an act of affection and “pointed intimacy”, she said.

A third great love of his life was Terenure Rugby Club, where he would go at weekends and find a “refuge from a house full of women”, she said.

At the outset of the service Mr Thursfield’s daughter Charlotte read the prose poem Desiderata, by Max Ehrmann, which ends: “With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.”

Mr Thursfield is survived by his wife Rosie, their three daughters, Katie, Sarah and Charlotte; Eve Francesca, an actress who lives in London and is a daughter from a previous marriage to journalist Nuala Macklin; brother Tony, and extended family.

As his coffin was brought from the chapel it was given a guard of honour by members of the Press Photographers Association of Ireland, after which it was brought for cremation at Mount Jerome Cemetery in Harold’s Cross.