Artists among congregation

The mourners: Many of Ireland's leading artists were among the mourners at John McGahern's funeral Mass in Aughawillan on Saturday.

Included were playwright Brian Friel and his wife, Anne; poet Seamus Heaney and his wife, Marie; playwright Tom Murphy; authors Eugene McCabe, Brian Lynch; poet Michael Longley and his wife, Prof Edna Longley; poets Paula Meehan, Michael O'Gorman, John Boland and his wife Marilyn.

President McAleese was represented by Capt Lorraine Fahey and the Taoiseach by Cmdt Micheál Murray. Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O'Donoghue represented the Government.

Other politicians included local TD John Ellis (FF); chairman of Leitrim County Council Gerry Reynolds (FG); Cllr Declan Bree (Lab), Sligo council, and local SF Cllr Martin Kenny. Former attorney general John Rogers was also there.

The Arts Council, of which John McGahern had been a member, was represented by chairwoman Olive Braiden, director Mary Cloake, and members Noelle Campbell Sharpe, Philip King, Theo Dorgan, and former member Emer O'Kelly. Prayers were offered during the Mass for Arts Council member Jerome Hynes, who died suddenly last September. The Abbey Theatre's director Fiach Mac Conghail was also there, as was actor Gary Lydon.

Present too were Prof Declan Kiberd of UCD; Prof Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh, president of NUIG; Dr Micheál O'Rourke of TCD. Faber and Faber publishers were represented by former managing director Lord Matthew Evans, current managing director Stephen Paige, and the company's former senior editor Robert McCrum, now literary editor with the Observer. Irish publisher Peter Fallon was also there.

Members of the media included friends of John McGahern such as Joe Kennedy and Justine McCarthy of the Irish Independent; Gerry Smyth, Caroline Walsh, Patsey Murphy, Susan McKay, Micheal O'Regan of The Irish Times; Séamus Hosey, John Quinn, Kevin Reynolds, and John Kelly of RTÉ.

Other friends included Maureen Kenny, of Kenny's bookshop in Galway; and Michael Keohane and his wife, Rosemary, of Keohane's bookshops in Sligo, Ballina, and Galway.