FORMER NEWSPAPER editor and political commentator John Cunningham has been described as a “colossus in Irish journalism” who made “only friends, not enemies”.
President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina were among a large crowd at Mr Cunningham’s funeral Mass in Galway yesterday, where tributes were paid to his “extraordinary vitality” and “decency”.
Even in his last days his thoughts were not for himself but for the financial future of the Galway Hospice, Connacht Tribunegroup editor Dave O'Connell told mourners at the Church of Christ the King, Salthill.
During his time as editor of the Connacht Tribune– spanning 23 years – "JC", as he was known, had championed the notion of a hospice when it was "just an idea", Mr O'Connell said. He later served as a director on the hospice board, and had been "very angry" about recent funding cuts.
He had made an exception to his rule “never to do photocalls”, when, as a hospice patient himself, he had been visited by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and made a strong case for its financial future.
“JC” regarded journalism as “not just a job, but a profession”, Mr O’Connell continued. He had a passion for politics and was a reporter at heart whose “blood flowed at the scent of a story”. This tradition continued in the newspaper with his son Enda, who is now a staff journalist, he noted.
Mr Cunningham had "never really retired", even after he did so officially in 2007, he said. He continued to write and never missed a deadline. His last column is published in this week's Galway City Tribune.
Chief celebrant Fr Tony Flannery recalled his own friendship with Mr Cunningham, and said he had a deep faith which he “did not wear on his sleeve”. He was a “decent and very positive human being” and a “dangerous man to play golf with”. He liked and respected politicians, Fr Flannery said.
He quoted from a letter published in The Irish Timesthis week from Rachael Finucane, one of Mr Cunningham's former students at the NUI Galway postgraduate journalism course.
“Perhaps most important was that he always emphasised our duty of care to the people involved in a story, as well as those who read it,” Ms Finucane had written. “Would you get a better epitaph as a journalist than that?” he asked.
Offertory gifts included a relic of Padre Pio, a set of golf balls, a copy of the Connacht Tribune, an edition of Nealon's Guide to the Dáil and Seanad, and a scroll of the NUI Galway honorary degree conferred on him in 2006.
Chief mourners were his wife Nuala, sons Shane, Ivor, Gary and Enda, sisters Mary and Therese, and grandchildren Seán, Ellen and Ethan. His brother Patrick was unable to travel from the US.
The Taoiseach was represented by his aide-de-camp, Cmdt Michael Treacy. A large number of politicians, friends and colleagues present included EU commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, former marine minister Frank Fahey, Connacht Tribuneboard chairman Tim Naughton and chief executive David Hickey, editor of The Irish TimesKevin O'Sullivan, former RTÉ western editor Jim Fahy and TG4 head of news Michael Lally.
Thanking the staff of the Galway Hospice, Mr Cunningham’s son Enda said he hoped the Taoiseach would live up to his word in terms of its future. He said he had been taken aback by the number of tweets on Twitter by former journalism students taught by his father at NUI Galway.