TRADITION, HUMOUR and some poignant moments marked the funeral Mass of Eithne Kenny, the mother of the Taoiseach, who died last Saturday aged 93. In a voice sometimes cracking with emotion, Enda Kenny told the 1,000-strong congregation in the Church of the Holy Rosary, Castlebar, that “hers was a life of loyalty and love and dedication to her profession, to her husband, her family and to her faith”.
She was born to a "humble lightkeeper" in Glencolumbcille, Co Donegal, he said, to a man "whose job was to light that light, the first and last point either leaving or entering Ireland, a point of contact, a point of safety, a point of comfort . . . It was on the deck of the [Irish patrol ship, the LE] Róisínthe other night, heading from Cork for Dublin into a force 7 gale, the thought struck me as I passed by Roches Point, Ballycotton, around the coast of Ardmore and round by Wexford, Tuskar and Wicklow, that those lighthouses – built as marvels of engineering and symbols of permanence when they sent out their white beam of hope and comfort – seemed as if they were actually calling from home. And so it proved."
He was on the deck of the Róisínon Saturday morning when he got the message about his mother from his wife, Fionnuala. "So it was true. And home it is . . . ", he said, his voice fading.
He talked of a woman who wrote in copperplate, who loved poetry and was a great reader, a woman whose Catholic faith was loyal, strong and never wavered, “irrespective of the difficulties that the church ever encountered”. She flew off to America in her 70s to find long-lost cousins who had emigrated to work in the mines of Nebraska, Wyoming, Oregon and Montana – and after spotting former taoiseach Jack Lynch on board, adopted him as her chaperone as far as St Louis.
The Taoiseach told stories about his mother’s baking skills, about her hospitality, about a family “council of war” summoned to word a telegram of sympathy appropriate to “lawtie tawtie” people, about the fact that she wasn’t able to make the journey to Dáil Éireann this year when the government changed. But they held a party in Cuan Chaitríona, her Castlebar nursing home, he said, his voice cracking a little, “and when I came home to Cuan Chaitríona, all she said was – she who had seen politics through all its phases – ‘Well done. You make me proud’”.
Earlier, Fr Pat Donnellan, the chief celebrant among 10 priests on the altar and parish priest of Islandeady, the Kenny family parish for 60 years, expanded on Mrs Kenny’s rather tragic early life. One of her brothers died aged five and Eithne was only eight when she lost her mother. Her father remarried and had a further six children.
After marriage to Henry Kenny – whom she met while they were teaching in Oughterard, Co Galway – three of their eight children, triplet daughters named Brigid, Henrietta and Margaret, died in infancy.
Henry himself died suddenly at 62. But she found strength in her faith, said Fr Donnellan. “My abiding memory is of a calm, serene lady always finishing with words of thanks in her lovely, soft Donegal accent . . .”
Though her faith was beyond doubt, she tended to hedge her bets by all accounts. As well as "storming the heavens" with prayers before elections, she was also wont to "throw the tongs out the door after [the canvassers] for good luck". Amid the traditional hymns – The Old Rugged Cross, Lady of Knock, Ag Críost an Síol– there were prayers as Gaeilge, with fluent responses from many soft-accented Donegal Irish speakers around the church.
The Taoiseach expressed the family’s gratitude to many people – doctors, nursing home staff, the Garda, the Order of Malta – and in particular acknowledged the presence of President Michael D Higgins’s aide-de-camp, Col Michael McMahon (the President attended the removal on Sunday), former president Mary McAleese and Senator Martin McAleese, Micheál Martin, Martin McGuinness, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and former taoisigh John Bruton and Bertie Ahern, as well as Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson and Julian King, British ambassador to Ireland.
“And of course members of the Government are here because they know what’s good for them,” he added laconically, triggering a wave of laughter. Also present were Attorney General Máire Whelan, Brig Gen Michael Finn, representing the Defence Forces chief of staff, and Cmdr Mark Mellett of the Naval Service.