Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Tributes as comic Brendan Grace dies at 68
Legendary funnyman, 68, keeps loved ones laughing up until his final moments
COMEDY legend Brendan Grace was laughing until his last breath, his daughter revealed yesterday.
Melanie Gillespie said the 68-yearold – known for playing Fr Fintan Stack in Father Ted – cracked jokes before dying peacefully with his family at his side in Galway.
She added: “We were all with dad, sitting around him and holding him and talking to him and my mother.”
It also emerged yesterday Grace filmed footage of his last days from his hospital bed in Galway this week, which will be released as part of a documentary for RTE in September.
The iconic comic passed away in the early hours of Thursday at the age of 68, after a diagnosis with lung cancer just 10 days before.
He is survived by his wife Eileen, and their four children Bradley, Melanie, Brendan and Amanda.
Speaking on RTE’S Liveline
yesterday, Melanie opened up about the last laughs she and her dad shared in his final hours.
She said: “He loved when we would take him off, when we would do impressions of him to him and we actually did that a lot in the hospital over the last few days.
“We had all these little inside jokes and we played them all out for him and we really got to have a very, very special time with him and it was quite a vulnerable special time.
“He felt that he could get up and say something or do something to make a crowd or a person feel better or give them a laugh, it was his greatest gift in life.
“And it was what gave him his biggest joy in life, and he did it up until his last breath.”
Melanie revealed her family made a pact to never leave his side, adding they all found comfort in his peaceful and painfree passing.
She said: “It was so comforting to us because he didn’t have any pain and we would say, ‘Dad have you any pain at all?’ “And he would say, ‘Not as much as a toothache’.
“He couldn’t believe this was going to take him because he felt so good and he looked so well but unfortunately this was a very rare type of cancer and we left no stone unturned.
“But unfortunately my father’s underlying health was a big issue also with diabetes and he was suffering with pneumonia as well which was disguising this rare form of cancer, which is why it wasn’t detected until the very late stages.”
Describing her mother Eileen as “his rock”, Melanie told how Grace longed for his wife’s comfort in his final moments. She said: “We were all with dad and we were all sitting around him and holding him and talking to him and my mother, who is his rock and always has been.
“Through this entire time she gave him such comfort and I truly believe it was the comfort my mam gave him that made his passing so gentle.
“If my mother stepped out of the room ever he would say, ‘Where is my beautiful Eileen?’ He would joke and say, ‘Where’s me moth?’
“We’d have to go and get her for him and when we did and he would lay his eyes on her, his whole body would just sink into a beautiful deep calm and he kept kissing her and thanking her for being his rock and it was the most beautiful thing.
“They had a beautiful marriage and it was evident in their final hours together.”
The Dubliner, who also starred in 2013 TV film Brendan Grace’s Bottler, lived in the US for many years before he returned home in June, where he was first diagnosed with pneumonia.
Recalling the shock that followed
Mammies always gave their sons onion sandwiches before going to a disco... and it was to make sure you brought no one home with you, because you stank of onions
shortly after when they learned of his battle with cancer, Melanie struggled to hold back the tears as she said: “We certainly weren’t expecting the diagnosis that it got and we weren’t expecting the prognosis he got.”
Grace’s manager of 27 years Tom Kelly said the medical team in Galway were hopeful to begin treatment before the entertainer took a turn for the worst on Wednesday.
He told the Mirror: “His cancer wasn’t deemed as terminal although it had spread. “The medical team were hoping to get his strength up to administer treatment. However, he became very ill yesterday and eventually lapsed into a coma.”
But crediting his strength until the very end, Melanie added: “I’ve never seen somebody to face such a horrible prognosis with his own name he was born with. He faced it with grace. And dignity and bravery.”
Shortly before falling ill, the funnyman was filming a programme documenting his work with charity choir the Forget Me Nots.
The documentary Brendan Grace: Thanks For The Memories is set to be completed by September.
It will feature his final interview which took place on Monday, just two days before his death, as well as his upcoming funeral which will take place at Dublin’s Francis Street this coming Monday. Brian Reddin, who produced Brendan Grace: Funnyman last year, told how the comic wanted the new show to be his “legacy”.
Speaking with Today with Sean O’rourke on RTE Radio 1 yesterday, he said: “He rang me and asked me to come down and film with him in hospital. So we went down and filmed with him in the hospital bed.
“He wanted to finish this documentary. He kept saying, ‘No stone left unturned, no stone left unturned. Make sure you finish this, make sure this is finished. I want the show to go ahead. I wanted to be there for the show. I wanted to be hosting the show but now I want it to be my legacy and I want to get this on camera’.
“And there’s a man who was dying of cancer who was saying to me, ‘I want you to help this choir, I want you to get awareness out there, I want this show to go ahead and if you don’t do it I will f***ing haunt you’.”
On his motherin-law: She’s a big woman, if she was sitting in here tonight, no matter where you were sitting she’d be beside ya I stood on the talking weighing scales and it said one at a time please Everybody blames the television for violence – but violence began with your mammy. Who else could look at a child and say, ‘I’ll kill you’. Now you can’t get any more violent than that! My television never threatened to kill me
WHAT a loss Brendan Grace’s death represents for the entire island as well as his grieving family.
A consummate showman, he made us laugh for decades. He lived up to his name – his performances were unquestionably clean, never smutty, and there was a huge market for his brand of comedy.
He could have filled parish halls and theatres the length and breadth of Ireland for years to come. In an increasingly anxious world, we need all the laughs we can get.
We should be thankful Brendan was around to crack us up for so long.