Sam Stephenson was a happy, adventurous man who took risks to create buildings that were sometimes regarded as controversial, mourners at the removal of the architect were told.
Several hundred family members, friends, colleagues and figures from public life attended the removal in St Francis Xavier church in Gardiner Street, Dublin, yesterday evening.
They heard Fr Enda McDonagh of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, pay tribute to the personal qualities of the 72-year- old architect, who designed the Central Bank, ESB headquarters and other prominent buildings in the capital.
Mr Stephenson's essentially happy nature was demonstrated in his gentleness, Fr McDonagh said. "He was not, as many commentators have noted, one to hold grudges. He was generous and forgiving in spirit, and he embodied the role of a peacemaker in the midst of sometimes raw controversy."
Fr McDonagh hailed "a man of great courage and initiative who was willing to risk the new and risk the failure that sometimes came with the new. That adventurousness in him, that willingness to take risks, was part of the great attraction of the man." Mr Stephenson's courage stayed with him to the end, even through serious illness in recent years, he said. During this time, he re-entered the Catholic faith he must have imbibed in school and at home when growing up.
Quoting the poet Patrick Kavanagh, Fr McDonagh said Mr Stephenson had realised in his own adventurous way that "fear of God is the beginning of folly".
He likened the poet's discovery of the God of the ordinary in the "mean fields" of Monaghan to Mr Stephenson's environment of Dublin's "dusty streets".
Mr Stephenson was "in stature small; in spirit, mind and undertaking, courageous and large", he said. "The man who left his mark on the city will be remembered above all as the man who cherished people, loved them and cared for them."
Fr Derek Cassidy, rector of nearby Belvedere College, recalled a picture of a smiling Mr Stephenson in the 1951 edition of the Belvederian as the school collected a senior rugby cup. In heaven, he now had more than a cup to be proud of, he said.
The mourners were led by his wife Caroline, children Karin, Mark, Bronwyn, Sam, Sebastian and Zachary, and his first wife Bernadette.
Among those present were Minister of State Conor Lenihan, former minister Michael O'Kennedy and Senator David Norris. Ciarán Haughey and Eimear Mulhern, son and daughter of the late taoiseach Charles Haughey, were there, as were impresario Noel Pearson, artist Robert Ballagh, broadcaster John Bowman and businessman Bill Cullen.
Others present included public relations executive Pat Heneghan, former city manager Frank Feely, National Museum director Pat Wallace, playwright Mannix Flynn and Mary Robinson's husband Nick. Mr Stephenson's funeral takes place at Glasnevin crematorium after 11am Mass today.
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