Politics and personal grief collided at Sligo Cathedral yesterday when former minister and EU commissioner Ray MacSharry bade an emotional farewell to his wife of 47 years, Elaine.
He said he and his family could not say enough about the care, support and attention his wife had received at Sligo General Hospital. "We have our own centre of excellence here in Sligo. Please God Elaine will help it to stay there," added Mr MacSharry in a reference to the controversial decision to downgrade cancer services at the hospital.
Elaine McSharry was described as the wind beneath her husband's wings during his long political career, but her devotion to her family was the recurring theme during the ceremony.
She was the daughter of the late John F Neilan who had been Roscommon State solicitor. The chief mourners were Mr MacSharry and the couple's six children, Heather Anne (Britton), Helen (Hayes), Lisa (Byrne), Raymond, Bryan and Marc, a Fianna Fáil senator, and Mrs McSharry's sisters Ann and Bridget and brothers William, Gerard and John.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern attended, as did businessman Larry Goodman, former taoiseach Albert Reynolds, former EU commissioners Pádraig Flynn and Michael O'Kennedy, and Ministers Brian Cowen, Noel Dempsey and Mary Coughlan.
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