More than 1,000 mourners packed the Church of the Holy Cross in Tramore, Co Waterford, yesterday for the funeral of murdered horse-breeder Dick Forristal.
The principal celebrant at the Requiem Mass, Msgr John Shine, recalled that everyone was united in their view of Mr Forristal.
"Over the last few days since it all happened, we've listened to it so often, we've read it so often, we've said it so often ourselves. It was wonderful that everyone was saying the same thing - he was a kind man, an obliging man, an inoffensive man - that was Dick.
"Turning the pages in one of the national papers the other day, I spotted a headline 'Death of A Gentleman' and I knew before I read it that it was Dick," said Msgr Shine, former parish priest of Tramore and a good friend of Mr Forristal.
Describing him as "a gentle good-humoured man whose face we will see no more, whose voice will never be heard", Msgr Shine said Mr Forristal had suffered a brutal death and it would take great courage for people to cope with such a tragedy.
He recalled the words of a concentration camp inmate: "When, through one man, a little more kindness and goodness and a little more love and truth has come into the world, then that man's life has had meaning."
He said that certainly applied to Mr Forristal.
Leading the mourners at the Mass was his sister, Terry Keane, his goddaughter, Helen Sullivan, his life-long friend, Joe Crowley and his cousin, Richard Forristal.
A close friend of Mr Forristal, Fionán O'Driscoll, read a poem entitled The Horse before Mr Forristal's coffin, bearing his white and gold with green trim racing colours, was taken from the church and he was laid to rest in the adjoining cemetery.
