LAST UPDATE | 10 Feb
THE FUNERAL OF former Taoiseach John Bruton took place this morning in Co Meath.
The 76-year-old Fine Gael politician died peacefully in the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin in the early hours of Tuesday morning following a long illness.
Many politicians were in attendance, including Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and President Michael D. Higgins as well as Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill. Mr Bruton’s wife Finola, his children Matthew, Juliana, Emily and Mary-Elizabeth, and his grandchildren and his brother, fellow Fine Gael politician Richard Bruton, were at the front of the church.
The funeral mass took place in St Peter and Paul’s Church in Dunboyne, Co Meath.
Two of Mr Bruton’s young grandchildren brought gifts to the altar at the beginning of the service.
Delivering the homily, Father Bruce Bradley described him as “honest and honourable, patient and persevering, courageous and committed”.
“The truth is that he was an instinctive, reflective Catholic. He was rooted in his faith. His life cannot be understood properly apart from that,” the priest said,
“He did not hold grudges and had a deep capacity to forgive. He was indeed a man without malice and he was a careful reader of history and its lessons for those who come after.”
Emily Bruton Iniekio, John’s daughter, read “Death is Nothing at All” by Henry Scott Holland at the end of the service.
Every pew in the church in Dunboyne was filled with mourners, with even more people gathering outside to watch a livestream of the service on a stream.
The funeral cortége travelled around two kilometres to Rooske Cemetery.
Delivering a graveside oration, Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar offered his condolences to the Bruton family and paid tribute to his life.
Varadkar said his life was one of love – “love of family, love of county, love of politics, love of our party, love of country.”
He recalled the support that John provided to him as a young member of Fine Gael and said he was an example to him throughout his career, including for how to lead a three-party coalition government.
“John loved Ireland with a real love, not defined by dislike or fear of others but a genuine love of our country and what we could be,” Varadkar said.
He recalled the former taoiseach’s role in negotiating with the UK during the Troubles and said he “reached out to the unionist community because he genuinely believed that this should be a shared island in which all identities would be respected”.
“He changed Ireland and he changed it considerably for the better. He changed us for the better too.”
Mr Bruton’s remains were received at the church at 7pm yesterday evening. Father Patrick O’Connor said that Mr Bruton was “one of the people who sowed the seeds for peace, which grew slowly, but eventually came to bloom”.
“No matter what position John found himself, he gave it his all. As a TD, as a Minister, as Taoiseach. He was a great statesman.”
Mr Bruton led Fine Gael from 1990 until 2001, and served as Taoiseach between December 1994 and June 1997 as head of the ‘rainbow coalition’ alongside Labour and Democratic Left.
He later served as the EU’s ambassador to the US between 2004 and 2009.
Additional reporting by Press Association and Jane Moore
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