A humanist ceremony for the late Justin Keating, former minister for industry and commerce, was held today in Bishopland, Ballymore Eustace, Co Kildare.
Burial of the former Labour minister took place afterwards at Eadestown Cemetery in Naas.
Among the mourners was Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, while the Labour Party was represented by leader Eamon Gilmore, Pat Rabbitte, Liz McManus, Ruairí Quinn and Michael D Higgins. The Labour leader in the Seanad, Senator Alex White; Labour TD Joanna Tuffy; and her father, Cllr Eamon Tuffy, were also present.
Siptu president Jack O'Connor, former attorney general John Rogers, former Labour Party general secretaries Brendan Halligan and Seamus Scally, and Senator Mary Henry also attended the ceremony, as did the aides de camp to the President and Taoiseach.
Former Fine Gael taoisigh Garrett Fitzgerald and Liam Cosgrave were present, as was former Fine Gael minister Gemma Hussey. Foreign policy editor Paddy Smyth represented The Irish Times.
Mr Keating, who died on New Year’s Eve aged 79, was best known as a Labour minister for industry and commerce in the 1970s, having been one of a number of intellectuals and academics who successfully contested Dáil seats for the party in the late 1960s.
Born in Dublin on January 7th, 1930, he was son of the well-known painter Sean Keating and grew up in a household dominated by the arts and politics. He was educated at Sandford Park, UCD and at London University, and became a lecturer in the UCD veterinary faculty in 1955, moving to the Trinity part of that shared establishment in 1960.
He became head of agricultural programmes in RTÉ in 1965, writing and presenting the Telefís Feirme series, before returning to Trinity two years later.
He was first elected to the Dáil in 1969 as a Labour TD for Dublin North County. He served in the coalition government under taoiseach Liam Cosgrave as minister for industry and commerce from 1973 to 1977. He was appointed an MEP from the Oireachtas in 1973.
Mr Keating lost his Dáil seat in Fianna Fáil's landslide victory at the 1977 general election, but was subsequently elected to the Seanad on the agricultural panel, where he served until 1981.
When his political career ended, he returned to his other interests, including agriculture, and retained a public profile, expressing his views on various issues.
A life-long secularist, he served as president of the Humanist Association of Ireland and contributed to its journal.
He served as chairman of the National Council for Educational Awards.
He married Loretta Wine, an accomplished music student, after the second World War, and they had three children - David, Carla and Eilis. They later divorced. In 2005, he married Barbara Hussey, a solicitor specialising in family law.