The funeral took place in Dublin yesterday of Mr Paddy Dowling, a key figure in the ESB's rural electrification programme. Only three weeks ago, Mr Dow ling was presented with the Carlow Person of the Century award.
Mr Dowling (95), from Tinry land, who toured Ireland in the late 1940s informing a sometimes sceptical population of the advantages of electricity, was honoured at a function organised by the Old Carlow Society.
In selecting its person of the century, the society wanted to pay tribute to someone who had had a positive impact not only on Carlow, but also on the State as a whole. As an architect of the electrification scheme, Mr Dowling had helped to change the face of rural Ireland, it said.
Mr Dowling attended the function in Carlow and, in a humorous speech, recalled the difficulty he and his colleagues had in acquiring enough timber poles from Finland to get the project up and running.
"We couldn't believe how many poles they had, and they couldn't believe how many we wanted," he said.
Speaking at the same event, the ESB's chief executive, Mr Ken O'Hara, said the magnitude of the task facing Mr Dowling and his colleagues could be gauged from an early estimate of the basic materials required. "There were 1 million poles, 100,000 transformers and 75,000 miles of cable."
Mr Dowling died at the Black rock Clinic last Friday, and yesterday's funeral took place at Glasnevin Crematorium.