EDNA O’BRIEN made her final trip home as The Country Girl was laid to rest on Holy Island.
Regarded as one of the greatest writers of her generation and one of the country’s finest scribes, Edna died at the age of ninety three on July 27th following a long illness.
She was buried on Holy Island on Saturday following a funeral mass at St Joseph’s Church in her native Tuamgraney. The church was filled to capacity with dozens of mourners watching the service on screens outside. A violinist and cellist performed ahead of the mass.
President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina were among the mourners in attendance, they stayed in The Old Ground Hotel in Ennis on Friday night. A large floral wreath from the President and Sabina Higgins read: “With deep appreciation and all our love for what Edna gave to life and culture and in a most memorable way to all of us and future generations”.
Taoiseach Simon Harris (FG) and Tánaiste Micheál Martin (FF) were represented at the mass by Commandant Claire Mortimer. Actor Stephen Rea, producer and director John McColgan and lyricist and author Tim Rice were among those also in attendance. Chief Executive of Clare County Council, Pat Dowling was also present alongside Mayor of Clare, Cllr Alan O’Callaghan (FF), Cllr Pat Burke (FG) and Senator Timmy Dooley (FF).
During the procession of symbols, family members and friends laid items which held significance for Ms O’Brien. Her grandson Oscar presented the Irish author’s French Legion of Honour to represent a “lifetime of extraordinary achievement”. Other items included a Buddha statue offered by her niece, which was said to symbolise how Ms O’Brien was a “deeply spiritual woman whose curiosity and open heart led her to many faiths throughout her lifetime” including Buddhism.
Her Irish literary inspirations were honoured by a friend who carried a copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses, while another presented a portrait of the late author Samuel Beckett, a friend of Ms O’Brien.
Gifts representing her life were brought to the altar at the beginning of the mass. They included a gold Torc, which she received from President Higgins in 2015, when she was elected Saoi of Aosdána. Flowers from the garden of Drewsborough House, her childhood home in Tuamgraney, were also offered.
Her grandchildren India, Jack, Finn, Georgia and Euan read the Prayers of the Faithful. Following her requiem mass, her wicker coffin was carried from the church to applause.
Chief celebrant Fr Donagh O’Meara described her as “a remarkable” and “an extraordinary” woman. He said she was “a profound family person, a mother, a grandmother and a great grandmother”.
Fr O’Meara said the late author was “hugely determined and she worked so hard”. He also said she “experienced many challenges during her long life”. “She was a speaker of truth. Edna held up a mirror for us in a very narrow time in Ireland”.
He continued, “We didn’t thank her for it. Like a lot of prophetesses of the past, we undermined her, we isolated her and rejected her message and she must have deeply felt that,” he admitted in reference to the fact that her debut novel Country Girls was banned and burned in East Clare in 1960.
Among the challenges he touched on were the difficulties in standing out like she did. “When you stand out at any moment, at any time, you find yourself isolated quite quickly. And we did that. And that is to our shame as a society and as a church. That is to our shame”.
Edna’s Marcus ‘Sasha’ Gébler told the mass, “In the last week, I’ve been moved and overwhelmed by the tributes and affection for our mother from so many different people in so many countries”.
He said, “For many writers, it is their first book that is their best, and they never quite live up to that initial curated distillation of their own life. But in our mother’s case, her development as a writer was an arc continually ascending from the lives of young women in 1940s Ireland – through age, experience and suffering – to 1990s Bosnia or Nigeria in 2014”.
Reflecting on the purpose of his mother’s stories, he added, “I believe in her case, it has been and will remain, to illuminate, inspire, give courage to and speak for those who are rendered dumb. Mr Gébler also read a poem he wrote for his mother, which received a round of applause from the congregation.
In the region of 150 mourners were ferried from Knockphort, Mountshannon to Holy Island on numerous boats with assistance from Clare Civil Defence volunteers, the Killaloe Coast Guard and the RNLI.
