Community mourns loss of local boy Charlie

From early morning, people arrived at Donnycarney church, queuing for the chance to go inside to pay their respects to Charlie Haughey, always considered a local, a northside boy, writes Elaine Edwards.

Our Lady of Consolation Church, one of Dublin's largest, was surrounded by crash barriers draped in discreet black crepe for the occasion of Mr Haughey's State funeral today and tomorrow.

Gardaí were posted at the church entrances and more took care of traffic duties outside. Traffic, other than local movement, was carefully controlled and re-routed from points at Griffith Avenue and Skelly's Lane. Every detail of this farewell to a former taoiseach had clearly been planned to the finest degree.

Among the early massgoers and those queuing to file past Mr Haughey's open coffin were many members of the Fianna Fáil party, and many older people from Donnycarney and surrounding communities of Artane, Killester and Beaumont.

Some had travelled from further afield - one group travelled from Kerry for the event. None would hear a bad word said about "Charlie", the once powerful and influential, if controversial, figure only ever identified in this area by his first name.

Nancy Duffy and Kay Bradbury of the Dan Breen Fianna Fáil cumann in Dublin sat on the low wall outside the front entrance to the church at 10.30am.

"I always admired Charlie," Ms Duffy said. "He was a very upright man, even though a lot of the media slated him."

Mr Haughey's coffin arriving at the church this morning. Photograph: Elaine Edwards

"He did marvellous things. One thing he did for us is he gave us free travel."

Ms Duffy, originally from Knock, praised the work Mr Haughey had done for her local community, particularly the establishment of Knock airport. "It was wonderful for the west."

Ms Bradbury said: "I could not say a wrong word about him. I'm listening to a lot of people saying wrong things. But I just close my ears - I don't want to hear it, because what I don't hear won't sicken me. He must have been a good person. He can't be all bad."

"We just accepted him as a man and as an individual," Ms Duffy adds.

"I don't know anything about any of those bad things and I don't like listening to anybody that would say bad things about anybody," Ms Bradbury says.

Margaret Tancred, a Donnycarney resident and also a member of Fianna Fáil, describes herself as "a great Charlie fan".

"The amount of good he did for people is unbelievable around here. He was a great man. His mother lived here and I was at his mother's funeral and at his sisters' funerals. I knew him very well. I used to canvas for Charlie. He had great charm and great wit - he was a very funny man."

Asked whether it was also right to remember the negative things in Mr Haughey's career, Ms Tancred said: "I honestly don't think he did all they say he did. But his private life is his private life, the same as mine is mine and yours is yours."

Marian Gleeson from Killester said she felt she "had to be here". "He was a nice guy. Some people say he was a rogue, a loveable rogue; I liked him. His son Seán is very involved in our local GAA club, Parnells. He did a lot, especially for older people.

"It's my son's sports day today and he said 'Mam, are you not coming?' I said no, I had to come down to see Charlie." Ms Gleeson will be at this evening's removal service and also at the funeral tomorrow morning, she said.

"I'm booked up for the next 48 hours."

Éanna Giles from the Howth Road said: "I'm here to pay honour to a man I always thought was a wonderful leader of the country. He had faults like everyone else but there are an awful lot of people who never owned up to them and I think he deserves what he's getting here today.

"It can all be looked at afterwards, but he had a tough time at the end and I think he deserves a good send-off. He has done wonderful work for this country, especially for the old and the medical department. He has always been above board and the fact that he was involved in a few things that are now being investigated, who's not needing investigation?"

Anne Forde, Dublin 5, said she met Mr Haughey twice. "He was very charming," she said. "My late husband knew him also. They soldiered together. He was in the FCA and my husband was also in it."

"I came to pay my respects to the man. He did a lot for the country. What he did in his own private time was his business. We all followed his ups and downs and he put a lot into life."

"He was the first man I voted for. He was a great man and he did a lot for the country. I'm here to offer my sympathy," said Tom McConnell from Raheny. "I know Seán personally and Mrs Haughey and I've been out there with them."

"Unfortunately a few things went wrong. But you have to look at the good things. He was unfairly attacked sometimes but there was some of it maybe deserved. We have to move on and we're here to honour him.

Mr Giles later came back to speak to ireland.comand to offer a quote from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar to illustrate his feelings.

"The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."