HUNDREDS GATHERED yesterday in south Dublin to pay a final tribute to an entertainer described as “a giant of our Irish childhoods”.
Master puppeteer Eugene Lambert, best known for his children's TV series Wanderly Wagon, died last Monday, aged 81.
His wife Mai, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were joined by mourners from the world of theatre, television, politics and music in the Church of St Patrick, Monkstown, to mark his departure.
Aides-de-camp Capt Martin Larkin and Comdt Michael Treacy attended on behalf of President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Brian Cowen respectively.
Family friend Fr Michael McGoldrick officiated, along with parish priest Fr Michael Coady, former parish priest Fr Maurice O’Moore and Fr Dermod McCarthy from RTÉ.
Music for the requiem Mass was provided by Liam Ó Maonlaí, who sang Ag Críost an Síolamong other hymns, and Sinead O'Connor, who sang Make Me a Channel of Your Peace.
Local singer Nuala O'Connor performed Amazing Grace.
A wooden model of the red-painted Wanderly Wagon and a photograph of Eugene and Mai Lambert, who were almost 60 years married, were among items placed on the altar.
Prior to the beginning of the Mass, writer Joe O’Connor paid tribute to Lambert, describing him as a “comic genius”, and a “dolmen in a suit, rocking with merriment”.
He said he had a telepathic connection with children, and kept faith with his artform’s possibilities.
“Eugene was a big man in every sense, a man who had known sadness and loss in his personal life, but a brave man of passions and joy, a giant of our Irish childhoods,” he said.
Prayers were said for his family and for his two sons Jonathan and Stephen, who had died before him.
Other mourners included actor Bill Golding, who played Rory in Wanderly Wagon, Frank Kelly, Ardal O’Hanlon, Theo Dorgan, Marion Richardson, Jonathan Ryan, Joe Taylor and author Christopher Fitzsimons.
Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore was also present, as were politicians Mary Banotti and Nora Owen, both nieces of the late Nora O’Mahony, who played the part of Godmother in Wanderly Wagon.
Fr McGoldrick said Lambert was a friend, a gifted artist and a consummate professional who was always a child at heart and who loved children.
“We thank God for the gift he was to each of us,” he said.
Emily Tully spoke of being one of 15 grandchildren. Being a grandchild of “Eugene”, whom they never called granddad, was a unique experience. She said he had taught his grandchildren a lesson in love in the way he spoke about his wife, Mai.
“He told us that he loved her and that she looked after him, and he really appreciated her,” she said.
Poet Theo Dorgan read a tribute to Lambert, and Bill Golding also addressed mourners at the end of the Mass.
Golding said Lambert had a “single-minded, unashamed and unapologetic, almost childlike enthusiasm for his craft”.
The puppeteer spent his entire life telling stories, he said. He had a mischievous personality and used Finnegan, the dummy in his ventriloquism act, to get away with doing puppetry on radio. He had also bought the dummy a driver’s licence as a joke.
He had “a great big chest, oozing with pride” for his wife and family, he said.
His diverse legacy couldn’t be safer in the hands of his hard-working and multi-talented family.
“Knowing that might help to keep a broad smile on the rotund face of the puppeteer,” he said.
The coffin was carried from the church to the theme tune from Wanderly Wagon, and to prolonged applause from mourners, before being laid to rest in Shanganagh Cemetery.
