The funeral takes place today of Mr Gerry Noone, a former sports Colleagues mourn former sports editor editor of The Irish Times, who died on Friday at the age of 70.
Colleagues, journalists from other national newspapers, and sports people attended the removal ceremony in St Brigid's Church, Killester, Dublin last night, to pay tribute to Mr Noone, who was at the forefront of Irish sports journalism for 40 years before his retirement in 1993.
At the ceremony the parish priest, Father Dermot Leycock, sympathised with Mr Noone's wife, Dolly, his daughters, Jean and Debbie, sons Clifford, Barry and Greg and his relatives.
Those present also included Ms Karen Erwin, Deputy Group Managing Director of The Irish Times; Mr Derek McCullagh, production manager; Mr Seamus Conaty, managing director of Itronics; Mr Jim Cooke, former production manager; Mr Eugene McEl downey, night editor, Mr Valentine Lamb, managing editor of the Irish Field, and Mr Gerard Cavanagh, general manager of the Irish Field.
Mourners included his successor as sports editor, Mr Malachy Logan, and the paper's soccer correspondent, Mr Peter Byrne. Among retired colleagues present were Mr Paddy Downey, the former GAA correspondent of The Irish Times, Mr Sean Diffley, former rugby correspondent of the Irish Independent and Mr Vincent Mathers, formerly of the Sunday Express.
Also in attendance were the group sports editor of Independent Newspapers, Mr Pat Courtney; Mr P.J. Cunningham, the sports editor of the Irish Independent; Mr Adhamhnan O'Sullivan, sports editor of the Sunday Independent, and RTE racing commentator Mr Tony O'Hehir, Mr Wesley Boyd of RTE, and PR consultants Mr Pat Heneghan and Mr Sean O'Shea.
Mr Noone at one time played soccer for Bohemians and a number of former soccer players were present, including Mr Sonny Molloy. The funeral takes place at Glasnevin Crematorium after 10 a.m. Mass this morning at St Brigid's Church in Killester.