The public will this afternoon be able to pay their respects to the actor Donal McCann, who died on Saturday in Dublin aged 56.
The body of the actor is to lie in repose between 2.45 p.m. and 6 p.m. at the chapel in Terenure College, the school he attended as a boy. He died at Our Lady's Hospice in Harold's Cross late on Saturday night after a 20-month battle with cancer.
In recent days friends and colleagues had been gathering around the bedside of the actor best known for his roles in plays such as Juno and the Paycock, The Steward of Christendom and Faith Healer and in the film, The Dead.
"It seemed as though he waited for certain friends to arrive and only died when everyone had stopped in to see him - it was quite a magical thing," said playwright Sebastian Barry, the author of The Steward of Christendom, the last stage performance by McCann.
He said McCann made theatre relevant "in the way that a good cleric makes religion relevant".
His death was like "a light being turned out", according to Joe Dowling, the director of the Guthrie Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. McCann was the greatest Irish actor this century, he said.
"Donal had an extraordinary ability to turn a lot of personal pain into professional work . . . he was a complicated and wonderful man," added the former Abbey Theatre director.
The actor John Kavanagh said he had been "shattered" to hear of his death. "He was extraordinarily inventive, with an extraordinary mind, and he was a wonderful guy to work with," he said from New York.
The director of the Gate Theatre, Michael Colgan, described the actor as "the first among equals". "He just had it, he was the real thing. He did things and you didn't know how he did them and yet it would work," he said. Abbey director Patrick Mason said his loss was "a savage blow". He had "the ability to project the inner life of a character without in a sense doing anything . . . it was effortless and it was this natural gift that made him so exceptional."
Tributes to the actor poured in from politicians last night. Among the first to pay her respects was Ms Sile de Valera, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, who said his death meant the curtain was drawn on one of the State's greatest acting talents.
In her tribute, the President, Mrs McAleese, said she was "very saddened" to learn of his untimely death. The State had lost a formidable acting talent, who displayed enormous commitment to his profession and brought pleasure to audiences at home and abroad.
The former Minister for Arts and close friend of the actor, Mr Michael D. Higgins, said McCann would be remembered as one of the greatest actors of all time. He embodied "an extraordinarily honest concentration that made watching him an often electrifying and certainly totally unforgettable experience".
The removal will take place today from Fanagans Undertakers in Aungier Street to the chapel at Terenure College. After a funeral Mass in Terenure at noon tomorrow, the burial will take place at 3.30 p.m. in the cemetery at Monaseed, near Gorey, Co Wexford, where his mother and her family lived.
The actor is survived by a sister, nieces, aunts and cousins and by his partner, Beau.