The paintings of the late Tony O'Malley will keep shining in the rivers of art for eternity, the poet Seamus Heaney told mourners at the painter's funeral Mass in Callan, Co Kilkenny, yesterday.
A friend, John O'Donohue, who gave the eulogy at the service, said that if God ever misplaced the blueprint for colour he could call on Tony O'Malley to supply it.
The poet Paul Durcan read a new poem in honour of the artist. He spoke of cartwheels of colour in O'Malley's work and the importance of Jane O'Malley to her husband's life.
Another friend, Father Pat O'Brien, the main celebrant at the Mass, said Tony O'Malley's life and work read like a geography of the Irish spirit in new colours.
"Even for those who knew him slightly, or knew him only in his work, or were at the edge of the places that were his own, Clare Island, Callan, St Ives, the Bahamas, the Canaries and Scilly Isles, there is the knowledge that a gift has passed and the world is suddenly colder," Father O'Brien said to the mourners at a packed Church of the Assumption in Callan.
The funeral was attended by the President's aide-de-camp, Col Traolach Young; the chairman of the Arts Council, Mr Pat Murphy; the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Liam Aylward, Mr Phil Hogan TD, Mr John McGuinness TD, artists Paul Mosse, Hughie O'Donoghue, George Vaughan and Bernadette Kiely and broadcaster Mike Murphy.
The Minister for Arts, Mr O'Donoghue, attended the removal.
The cortege from the church to Kilbride cemetery was led by the Mayor of Kilkenny, Cllr Betty Manning, and the members of Kilkenny City Borough Council.
Mr O'Malley was buried wearing his favourite cap and his working clothes and with a little stuffed toy black cat.
Gifts brought to the altar included his accordion, a hurley signed by the Kilkenny senior hurling team and one of his palettes and a paint brush.
The former Irish Times art critic, Brian Fallon, who wrote the definitive biography of Tony O'Malley, was praised by Father O'Brien in his homily for his long-time advocacy of O'Malley and his work.
He also spoke of Mr Fallon's father, the poet Padraic Fallon, who was O'Malley's mentor and introduced him to the writings of Gerard Manley Hopkins.
And Seamus Heaney recited one of Hopkins's poems during the Mass. I caught this morning morning's minion is the first line of The Windhover.
Mr Heaney said that O'Malley's works were full of such imagery - owls and hawks- and it was appropriate to quote the poem in his honour.
It was left to John O'Donohue to describe O'Malley's work: "He was blessed with a wonderful eye," he said. And while he was able to capture the imagery of the visible he had an eye for the invisible, or what lies beneath the surface and was also able to paint it.
O'Malley's trips to Clare Island, Co Mayo, where his father, Patrick, was born were also alluded to by Mr O'Donohue. "When I started out, ignorance was my companion and I had to discover everything for myself," O'Malley once told him.
The huge part played in his life by his wife of 29 years, Jane O'Malley, was mentioned by every speaker.
"She was wife, lover, friend, companion, nurse, Muse and guardian," Father O'Brien said.