The late Cardinal Cahal Daly was a “transforming figure at a time of immense” historical change in Ireland, mourners at his funeral were told today.
Several hundred people, including political leaders and dignitaries from North and South, attended the ceremony in Armagh city.
The Catholic primate, Cardinal Seán Brady, was the chief celebrant in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, for the requiem Mass for Cardinal Daly, who died last Thursday, aged 92.
Pope Benedict XVI had nominated Cardinal Brady to celebrate the Mass and to be his personal representative at the ceremony.
Cardinal Brady described Cardinal Daly as "a prophetic, renewing and transforming figure in a time of immense change in the history of this island".
"But his mission would be misunderstood, his legacy misrepresented if it focused solely, or indeed principally on the social and political aspects of his work,” he said.
“Cardinal Cahal Daly was first and foremost a man of faith, a man of prayer, a man of God."
In his homily, Cardinal Brady also referred to the recent abuse scandals that have beset the church, saying “the abuse of children and its shameful mismanagement by those charged by God to protect his ‘little ones’, have wrought such damage on those who were abused.
"It has caused such justified anger and outrage on the part of the faithful and damaged trust so profoundly in the integrity of the leaders of the Church," he said. "No one can doubt the Catholic Church in Ireland is now at a defining moment in its history."
Cardinal Daly was buried on the cathedral grounds close to the grave of his predecessor cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich.
President Mary McAleese, her husband Martin, Taoiseach Brian Cowen, representatives from the main Protestant churches and members of Cardinal Daly’s family, including his brother Patrick and sister Rosaleen were among the mourners.
The funeral was attended by Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams. Sammy Wilson and Arlene Foster of the DUP visited Cardinal Brady before the Mass to convey their sympathies. DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson did not attend.
The Ulster Unionist Party was represented by Lady Sylvia Hermon, while Alliance Party leader David Forde also attended, as did SDLP leader Mark Durkan, who was accompanied by deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell and former party leader and Nobel Laureate John Hume.
Mourners also included former taoisigh Albert Reynolds and John Bruton, Secretary to the Taoiseach Dermot McCarthy and Fine Gael TD Frank Feehan, who was representing his party leader Enda Kenny.
Former Northern Ireland police ombudsman Nuala O’Loan, former UUP MP Lord Maginnis, former MP and TD Austin Currie and Justin Kilcullen of Trócaire were among the mourners.
Cardinal Daly was appointed as archbishop of Armagh and primate of all-Ireland on December 16th, 1990, and served until his retirement, at the age of 79, when he was succeeded by the then-archbishop Brady on October 1st, 1996. He was created a cardinal by the late Pope John Paul II on June 28th, 1991.