“OH! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; xc
“Sunward I have climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of.”
These words of a pilot killed in the second World War formed part of the tributes to well-known theatre producer, businessman and former chairman of the RTÉ Authority Fred O’Donovan at his funeral yesterday.
Mr O'Donovan's daughter Fiona introduced his friend Cathal O'Shannon, who read the poem High Flightby John Gillespie Magee, which summed up her father's "great optimism and lust for life and spirit of adventure".
Mr O’Shannon grew up in the same street as Mr O’Donovan in Rialto, Dublin, before serving alongside him in the RAF and working with him in RTÉ.
Mr O’Donovan’s son, Comdt Fred O’Donovan, spoke of his father’s pride in his service in the RAF and his career in entertainment. He told the assembled mourners, who spilled out the door of the Church of the Assumption in Howth, it was his father’s wish that his funeral would not be sad.
“He does not want a tear shed, except maybe by those he owes money to,” he said to laughter.
“His favourite maxim was, he lived in a country he loved, he worked in a profession he loved with people he loved and of course with a family he loved.”
He also read a note written by his father: “Now that I’ve fallen off my perch, I would like to thank with all my heart my family and friends for the wonderful love and friendship you gave me. What more could a man ask for?”
Elgar's Nimrodwas played as the gifts, a programme for the Gaiety Theatre, an Adelaide badge and a plaque marking his involvement as one the founders of the Irish Cancer Society, were brought to the altar.
Mr O’Donovan’s wicker coffin was draped with a garland of poppies and medals.
Many of his RTÉ colleagues attended yesterday, including Gay Byrne, Larry Gogan, Nicki Hayes, Maxi and Richard Crowley. The RTÉ board and senior management in RTÉ were represented by Adrian Moynes, senior secretary to the board.
President Mary McAleese was represented by her aide-de-camp Michael Walsh.
Music was performed by violinist Geraldine O’Grady, soprano Virginia Kerr and organist Margaret O’Sullivan.
The funeral Mass was concelebrated by Msgr Brendan Houlihan and Fr Dermod McCarthy, editor of religious programming in RTÉ, Msgr Eoin Thynne, head chaplain of the Defence Forces and Athlone army chaplain Fr Gerry Dowd.