The funeral took place in Dublin today of actor Mick Lally, who died this week at the age of 64 after a short illness.
The service was held at Newlands Cross Crematorium Chapel.
Born in November 1945 and reared in Tourmakeady, Co Mayo, he was the eldest of a family of seven children. Lally was educated at St Mary’s College in Galway and studied arts at UCG, where he developed his passion for theatre with the college’s Cumann Drámaíochta.
After graduating with a degree in Irish and history, he studied for a higher diploma in teaching. His first teaching job was in Tuam, but he continued to act in the Taibhdhearc theatre in Galway.
He spoke in an Irish Farmers' Journal interview last year of how he was contemplating emigration in Galway's Cellar Bar when he was approached by UCG students, Hynes and Mullen, who were thinking of staging Synge's The Playboy of the Western World .
After a week of rehearsals, the trio formed Druid. In 1978, he was cast as Miley Byrne, a farmer's son, alongside actors Gabriel Byrne and the late Joe Lynch, in the RTÉ series Bracken. In 1983, his Miley became central to the new weekly television series, Glenroe.
Big screen work included Oliver Stone's Alexander in 2004, and Lally was the voice of Brother Aidan, owner of cat Pangur Bán in the Academy Award nominated animated film, The Secret of Kells.
Lally marked his 30th wedding anniversary last year with his wife Peige, a nurse from Inis Meáin.
The couple reared three children, Saileog, Darach and Maghnus. He is also survived by his parents May and Tommy, brother Tomás and five sisters, Teresa, Marie, Sarah, Nuala and Rita.