THE FRUITS of “the dissident intelligence” are not lost, despite the death of writer John Arden, President Michael D Higgins said yesterday.
He was speaking at a funeral service in Dublin’s Mount Jerome crematorium for the late playwright, novelist and short story writer who died at the age of 81 last Wednesday.
And, as with Blake and Shelley, John Arden’s words “had the authenticity of life”, Mr Higgins said. He recalled “the wonderful companionship of John and Margaretta ... in often lonely times” and would “always remember the great shock of white hair...” and how “he spoke as if rehearsed, with not a word wasted”.
The President was one of many speakers at a ceremony of celebration conducted by Littlejohn Nee in Mount Jerome yesterday afternoon. Music involved recordings from the Itinerant Band and the London Symphony Orchestra.Singer Mary Coughlan commented “what a collection of contrarians, and celebrating a contrarian!” before singing James Connolly.
Film maker Bob Quinn thought it “appropriate to do something inappropriate” and sang his song No Nama, No More (to the tune of The Wild Rover) as he had at John Arden’s 80 birthday in Galway.
Shell to Sea’s Maura Harrington said that “John took the road less travelled... it was straight and true ... ” while theatre director Roland Jaquarello described the dead man as “one of a generation of writers at the Royal Court in London who changed the face of theatre”.
Jacob Arden read a message from his brother Adam, who is in Australia. Though they had met just three times in the past 25 years, Adam said he still felt “a sense of loss at the death of this man who was my father, not the writer”. They had “no unresolved issues... I told him I loved him before he died.” Jacob described his father as “a kind man, a generous man, above all a good man”.
Film maker Lelia Doolan sought words to describe “this great man ... contrarian, indomitable, argumentative, irreplaceable”. Writer Dermot Healy read two verses “picked by Margaretta, written by John”, while Nell McCafferty recalled episodes in Galway from “the non-stop revolution of Margaretta and John”. Edward Horgan said he would “remember John above all as a peace activist”.
Finn Arden read from his father’s dedication of the Gallows and Other Tales of Suspicion and Obsession collection of short stories. The ceremony concluded with Mary Coughlan singing Purcell’s Dido’s Lament.
Also there were playwrights Tom Murphy and Joe O’Bryne, Fiach Mac Conghail of the Abbey Theatre, film director Jim Sheridan, authors Peter Sheridan and Ulick O’Connor and theatre director Jimmy Fay.
