THE FUNERAL took place yesterday of Paddy Lenihan, a former Roscommon county councillor and uncle of Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan and Minister of State Conor Lenihan.
Mr Lenihan, of Hodson Bay, Athlone, was a brother of Longford-Westmeath TD Mary O’Rourke and the late tánaiste and minister for defence Brian Lenihan. He died on Thursday at Portiuncula Hospital, Co Galway, following an illness.
Speaking after the funeral Mass at the Church of the Risen Christ in Ballybay, Kiltoom, Co Roscommon, Brian Lenihan said his uncle was “a very strong man” from whom he had learned a lot.
Fr John Cullen, parish priest at Kiltoom, described his parishioner as a strong man with a strong faith. He recalled that the first time he met Mr Lenihan he was carrying not one but two bags of cement, one in each hand.
“He was never afraid of work,” he said, outlining Mr Lenihan’s varied endeavours as a haulage driver, farmer, county councillor and owner of a caravan park.
A former coalminer, he died on the day the Chilean miners were rescued from their underground ordeal, which Fr Cullen described as a sad irony.
Mr Lenihan was elected as a Fianna Fáil councillor to Roscommon County Council in 1974 where he served until 1991.
He was predeceased by his son Kevin and is survived by his wife Bríd, sons Pádraig and Fionnbar, daughter Gráinne and sisters Mary and Anne.