Dignified, humble, modest and a man of stature
FAMILY and faith sustained Seamus through his long years living with leukemia, according to his close friend Monsignor Dan O’riordan who was with him up until his final moments.
Firm friends since the late 1970s, the pair developed an even greater rapport on a tour of the US to promote the newlyopened Ardfert Retreat Centre in the early ’80s.
It was Msgr O’riordan who gave the homily at Seamus’s funeral Mass in St John’s Church on Tuesday morning.
“He called me when he got the message that he was facing the end and I got into my car and went up to Cork to him. In typical fashion for Seamus, who was so devoted to Dolores and his children and grandchildren, the first thing he said to me was that he was at peace but that he hoped it wouldn’t muck up Christmas for the family. The day before he died though he told me that they had a very special Christmas,” Msgr O’riordan said.
“His deep faith was actually an inspiration to me. It was very important to him and integral to his life in that it informed and nourished everything he did, it wasn’t a separate area,” he said.
Seamus was a leading lay member of the Church in his adopted home. “I first got to know him through the Council for the Family in the Diocese and he played a very important role in the St Joseph’s Young Priests’ Society, a lay organisation promoting vocations to the priesthood. Only for his illness Seamus would have become national director, given the huge work he did for the society and the funds he raised to support students for the priesthood.”
Dignified, humble and modest, he was a man of ‘stature’, Msgr O’riordan emphasised. “Seamus was a man of stature in every aspect of his life, physically and in character too. He was a gentleman to the core and very respectful of people. He was very genuine and sincere and entirely without cynicism or negativity. And he always used words responsibly – to build people up – and never negatively.”