A passion for truth and justice marked the life of Mrs Joan FitzGerald, and formed a fruitful partnership with her husband's commitment to peace and reconciliation, mourners at her funeral Mass heard yesterday.
Father Enda McDonagh told the packed congregation in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Donnybrook, Dublin, that Mrs FitzGerald had had "a vision and a reach which were very happily matched and married with the vision and reach of Garret". Their time together had been "a wonderful story of love".
There was much to grieve and to celebrate in the "happy, and yet so often painful life" just ended, he said. Very few people of his acquaintance had suffered so much and for so long as Joan FitzGerald, and yet she "retained her smiling hope to the end".
The beatitudes, one of the readings during the Requiem Mass, touched on many of her qualities, he added. She had been merciful; she had been a peacemaker; she had hungered and thirsted after justice.
But everyone would have his or her own image of her, from the wife and mother to the astute and insightful political thinker, "impatient as she was with the inevitable rubbish of political life, and clerical life too, I might add".
Dr Garret FitzGerald gave one of the readings at the service; while his daughter-in-law, the former TD Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, joined grandchildren of the deceased and other family members in the prayers of the faithful.
Mr John FitzGerald delivered a message of thanks, both for his mother's life and, on her behalf, for the help and companionship she had enjoyed from many people throughout her life.
These included the "very large number of nurses and carers" who helped her through her disability and final illness; as well as doctors and other professionals, those who had helped "keep the show on the road" in the family home, and members of the Garda, CIE and the ambulance services.
He thanked the press for respecting his mother's privacy over the years, adding that while she might be "grumpy - and she could be grumpy" to be woken at two in the morning, she had also made good friends with many journalists.
Her dislike of "politics in the abstract" was well-known, he said, but her friendships with politicians knew no party bounds, "and for that coalition of friendship, we are also thankful".
The chief mourners included the deceased's other son, Mark, and her daughter, Mary. Among the priests who assisted at the Requiem Mass were the Abbot of Glenstal, Father Christopher Dillon OSB; Father Gabriel Daly OSA; and Father Micheal Mac Greil SJ.
Mourners also included the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume MEP; the Ceann Comhairle of the Dail, Mr Seamus Pattison; the poet Seamus Heaney; the Chief Justice, Mr Liam Hamilton; a former chief justice, Mr Tom O'Higgins; and a former secretary of the Department of Finance, Dr T.K. Whitaker.
Two former secretaries general of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr Sean Donlon and Mr Noel Dorr, also attended; along with former EU Commissioner, Mr Peter Sutherland; Mrs Justice Susan Denham; and the president of UCD, Dr Art Cosgrove.
Fine Gael was represented by the party leader, Mr John Bruton; the former deputy leader, Mr Peter Barry; the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Sen Joe Doyle; Ms Avril Doyle TD and MEP; former leader Mr Alan Dukes TD; Mr Richard Bruton TD; Mr Enda Kenny TD; Mr Sean Barrett TD; Mr Jim Mitchell TD; Mr Gay Mitchell TD; Mr Paul Connaughton TD; Mr Jimmy Deenihan TD; Mr Jim O'Keeffe TD; Mr Austin Currie TD; Mr Alan Shatter TD; Ms Monica Barnes TD; Mr Seymour Crawford TD; Mr Simon Coveney TD; Mr Andrew Boylan TD; and by senators Mary Jackman and Tom Hayes. Also there was former minister of state, Ms Nuala Fennell.
The Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, attended, and the party was also represented by the former Tanaiste, Mr Dick Spring; the Irish member of the European Court of Auditors, Mr Barry Desmond; Mr Pat Rabbitte TD, Ms Liz McManus TD; and the former government adviser, Mr Fergus Finlay, as well as former TD, Ms Joan Burton.
Other politicians included Fianna Fail's Mr Niall Andrews MEP and Ms Mary Hanafin TD, as well as former minister and chairman of the victims' commission, Mr John Wilson, and SDLP Northern Ireland Assembly member, Ms Brid Rodgers.
The Irish Times was represented by Mr Gerry Smyth, managing editor. The newspaper's political editor, Ms Geraldine Kennedy, also attended; as did the literary editor, Ms Caroline Walsh, and the editor of Education and Liv- ing, Ms Ella Shanahan.
Other mourners included Prof Brian Farrell; Mrs Mary Colley, widow of Mr George Colley; Mr Nick Robinson, husband of the former president; and Mr Sam Stephenson.
Following the Requiem Mass, Mrs FitzGerald was buried in Shanganagh Cemetery.
