Literary great Brian Friel has been buried on a hillside outside the Co Donegal town where many of his works were set.
The people of Glenties lined the streets to say a final farewell to the playwright who put their town on the world stage with such productions as Dancing at Lughnasa and Translations.
Stunning October sunshine lit up the hills, fields, and rivers of Donegal as Mr Friel was taken from his home at Greencastle on the Inishowen Peninsula for the hour-and-a-half long journey to his resting place in Glenties.
Friends and relatives took Friel, who died aged 86, from the home he shared with his wife Ann on the shores of Lough Foyle.
His remains were carried in a wicker coffin up the steep, tree-lined avenue from his house and out onto the main road before being put inside the hearse.
Along the way people in towns and villages including Muff, Bridgend, Manorcunningham and Letterkenny, stood and clapped as the funeral cortege with Garda escort snaked its way across Donegal.
Although he was born in Co Tyrone and raised in Derry, Friel’s mother, Mary McLoone, was a native of Glenties where she worked at one time in the town’s Post Office.
Mourners were met with a blue and white rowing boat with a sign for Ballybeg, the fictional town in which Friel set many of his works and which many accept is Glenties. Locals walked the mile-long journey to the graveyard to say one final farewell to a man who loved to spend his childhood summers in the town.
At the graveyard, faces from the world of theatre, film and politics awaited the arrival of the funeral cortege.
Mourners included actors Stephen Rea, Sean McGinley, former RTÉ chairman Joe Mulholland, Kathleen Watkins, politicians including John Hume and Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
It is understood that President Michael D Higgins had paid a private visit to Friel’s home on Saturday.
Local parish priest Fr Pat Prendergast led the 300 mourners in prayer as the writer was laid to rest.
He said the people of Glenties were “privileged” that Friel had chosen to be buried in the soil of the area and amongst its people.
After the religious aspect of the ceremony was completed, friends of Friel paid their own tribute to him.
Poet and close friend Tom Paulin recalled many visits to Mr Friel’s Donegal home and how he loved a gin and tonic “before and after dinner”. He recalled his firm handshake and hugs and how he loved his wife, children and grandchildren so much. He also recited from Seamus Heaney’s Sunlight in memory of the playwright.
Another friend, playwright Thomas Kilroy also paid tribute. Singer Ruby Philogene-Doran sang one Friel’s favourite songs, Oft The Stilly Night as well as Dido’s Lament from Purcell’s Opera.
The Friel family, including his wife Anne and children Mary Bateman, Judy Maher, Sally Sultan and son David gathered around his burial plot in a circle to drop red roses onto the coffin.