STONE CARVER and puppeteer Pat Bracken, who died suddenly in Galway last week at the age of 58, was an “iconic renaissance man”, mourners at his funeral heard yesterday.
Artists and musicians formed a procession in light rain through Galway’s streets to St Nicholas’s Collegiate Church, which was packed to overflowing for the service led by Rev Tom Gordon.
The well-known puppeteer and performer had recently participated in the Macnas parade as part of the Galway Arts Festival.
Chief mourners were former partners Fiona Collins and Trish Connolly, his son Seán Connolly-Bracken, along with brothers, sisters and extended family. He is also survived by his father Stephen, who has been unwell.
One of his best-known creations, puppet Bridie, was placed beside his coffin in the church, along with a photograph of him by Joe O’Shaughnessy and a ceramic to mark the fact he had recently graduated in ceramics at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology.
In a moving tribute, film-maker and former RTÉ producer and director Art Ó Briain described his first encounter with Bracken, who, he believed, like poet Robert Frost, had a “lover’s quarrel with the world”.
Ó Briain recalled how a “diffident, shy, deferential” Bracken arrived with a canvas bag and took out a rather grotesque puppet. When an elderly waitress came to serve them, Bracken’s puppet sprung to life and engaged in a lively banter with her.
“It was the shortest audition ever,” Ó Briain said to much laughter. The “brilliant, awkward, late, hard-working” artist was hired for television, travelled widely, moved to the Focus Theatre and then came west to Galway where, as a “quintessential Dubliner, he immersed himself” in the city’s artistic life.
Bracken, who had originally trained in stone with his father, formed the Galway Puppet Theatre and was a familiar sight on Shop Street and Quay Street, where Bridie roared regular rude remarks and sang raunchy songs.
Bracken also had an extensive social life and “touched everyone, both emotionally and financially”, Ó Briain said, again to warm laughter, from the congregation of almost 1,000 people.
Musician and performer Little John Nee said some of Bracken’s greatest works were “rarer than Rembrandt” as they were “only in the memories of small children”.
Readings were by Bracken’s nephew, Alex Bracken, and niece, Aisling Bracken.
His sister Angela sang Autumn Leaves, with music also provided by Michael Chang, Fergus Feeley and Nuala Ní Chanáinn.
Bracken is to be cremated tomorrow at Glasnevin crematorium at noon.