Personalities from the arts, showbusiness and literary circles packed into Bushypark church, Galway last evening for a month's mind Mass in memory of the late Jerome Hynes.
Parked cars lined either side of the busy Galway to Connemara Road and the congregation inside the tiny church overflowed into the hallway and outside.
Galway native Jerome Hynes, a former managing director and chief executive of the Wexford Festival Opera died suddenly at the age of 45 on September 18th last. He also had a long association with Druid Theatre, Galway.
Among the attendance at last evening's Mass were three founder members of the Druid, actor Mick Lally, actress Marie Mullin and Jerome's sister, Gary.
His brother Donal, who had flown in from England, welcomed the capacity crowds to the Bushypark church for the Mass.
He said he hoped that the service would help the Hynes and Quinn families and all who knew Jerome in their transition through mourning and sadness as well as being a celebration in memory of his brother's very full life.
The mourners included Jerome Hynes's widow Alma and their children Conor, Fergal and Robbie and his mother Carmel.
Conor Hynes did the first reading from The Book of Wisdom.
Louise Donnellan from the Dunamaise Arts Centre in Laois represented the wider drama community and others included Ms Olive Braiden, chairperson of the Arts Council. The chief celebrant of the Mass was a friend of the Hynes family, Fr Jim Fegan assisted by Fr Seán Kilcoyne and Fr Joe Keogh.