FROM 9AM mourners began to gather outside University Church on Stephen’s Green for Caroline Walsh’s funeral Mass at 10am.
Despite the fact so many were unable to get inside, they remained without to “keep vigil”, as books publicist Cormac Kinsella later described it.
Chief mourners for the Irish Timesliterary editor were Walsh's husband, novelist James Ryan, their grown-up children Matt and Alice, and Walsh's sister, Elizabeth Peavoy. Another sister, Valdi MacMahon, died in late 2010.
Other family members included Walsh’s mother-in-law Kathleen Ryan, and her six brothers- and sisters-in-law – Paul, David, Michael, Catherine, Rosemary and Vera. There were also a large number of extended family members, as well as many nieces and nephews, including Kathleen and Megan MacMahon.
President Michael D Higgins, who had sent the family a hand-written letter of condolence, was represented by his aide-de-camp Capt Louise Conlon.
There were many colleagues past and present from The Irish Times.Editor Kevin O'Sullivan, along with former editors Geraldine Kennedy and Conor Brady, were in attendance, as were managing director Liam Kavanagh and former managing director Maeve Donovan.
Among the many other colleagues present were senior editors Fintan O’Toole and Orna Mulcahy, features editor Conor Goodman, arts editor Shane Hegarty, literary correspondent Eileen Battersby and literary secretary Regina Dwyer.
They were joined by former colleagues including Gerry Smyth, Victoria White, Helen Meany, Katie Donovan, Sheila Wayman, Louise East and Brian Fallon.
Among those representing the newspaper’s board and trust were Ruth Barrington, chairwoman of the trust; David Went, chairman of the board, and Tom Arnold, a governor of the trust
Representing the National Union of Journalists were vice-president Barry McCall, Irish secretary Seamus Dooley and father of The Irish Timeschapel, Paul Cullen.
Other mourners included former taoiseach John Bruton; Governor of the Central Bank Patrick Honohan, Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman; High Court judge Mr Justice Frank Clarke; former attorneys general Michael McDowell and John Rogers; historian Diarmaid Ferriter; broadcaster John Bowman; Catriona Crowe of the National Archives of Ireland; managing director of news at RTÉ, Ed Mulhall; literary editor of the Irish Independent, Madeleine Keane; columnist Sam Smyth; architect Denis Looby; Emeritus Professor of Psychology at University College Dublin, Ciarán Benson; Press ombudsman John Horgan; academic Declan Kiberd; Abbey Theatre director Fiach Mac Conghail; playwright Frank McGuinness; actor Jeananne Crowley; Lynn Geldof; former Green Party minister Eamon Ryan; former MEP Mary Banotti; director of Poetry Ireland, Joseph Woods; Prof Luke Gibbons, and radio producer Doireann Ní Bhriain.
Among the many poets present were Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney; Denis O’Driscoll, Julie O’Callaghan, Paul Durcan, Gerald Dawe, Theo Dorgan, Michael O’Loughlin, Enda Wyley, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Macdara Woods and Harry Clifton.
Novelists present included John Banville, also a former literary editor of The Irish Times;Colm Tóibín, Hugo Hamilton, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Anne Enright, Belinda McKeon, John Boyne, Deirdre Madden, Carlo Gébler and Ronan Sheehan.
Representing the world of publishing were Peter Fallon of Gallery Press, Pat Boran of Dedalus, Michael McLoughlin of Penguin Ireland, Declan Meade of The Stinging Flyjournal, Treasa Coady, formerly of Town House, and book publicists Declan Heeney and Margaret Daly.
After the funeral mass, some of the mourners paused outside to pay tribute to Walsh. “I will remember her kindness, her vivacity and her support. And as one of the jolliest people I’ve ever come across,” recalled novelist Deirdre Madden. “She was a person who freed one to be better,” said author Carlo Gébler.
The mourners also included this reporter, who was privileged to work alongside her for 16 years, and who, like so many others, has lost an irreplaceable colleague and cherished friend.
