Agnes Bernelle is to be commemorated by her musical and theatrical friends in a "memorial gig" later this year and a bursary for young cabaret artistes may be established in her memory, it was announced at her funeral yesterday. Her son, Mr Mark Leslie, was addressing relatives and friends of the German-born actress and singer in the chapel of Glasnevin Cemetery before the removal of her coffin for cremation. The coffin was draped in her favourite black feather boa.
Earlier, in the Star of the Sea church in Sandymount, Dublin, not far from her regency home on Strand Road, the order of service looked like a theatre programme, featuring photographs of Agnes Bernelle at various stages of her life.
Mary Coughlan sang Isla, Anne Bushnell sang Je Ne Regrette Rien and Gavin Friday sang a version of Mack the Knife in front of a side altar. When he was finished - in the manner of the master of ceremonies in Cabaret - he said: Auf Wiedersehen, Aggie.
St Mary Star of the Sea church, whose Angelus bells are immortalised in Ulysses, was filled to capacity by Ms Bernelle's friends and admirers, with the front rows occupied by her first family (with Sir Shane Leslie) and her second husband, Dr Maurice Craig, and his family.
Mr Mark Leslie paid tribute to Dr Craig, saying he had for years provided the emotional counterweight to "the exciting drama of Aggie's life". His mother's last few months also saw her "playing a role - this time as an elderly woman dying", he said.
The parish priest, Father Sweeney, said Agnes Bernelle's life was "a model of triumph over many adversities, first in Berlin under the Nazis, when she lost many friends and acquaintances in the Holocaust". He himself had been "honoured, yet at ease" to be in the company of a woman of such greatness.
Senator David Norris and Dr Andrew Carpenter read the "Lament for Imogen" from Shakespeare's Cymbeline. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, was represented by his aide-de-camp. Also present were Mr RuairI Quinn TD, leader of the Labour Party, and Mr Ben Briscoe (FF), a former Lord Mayor of Dublin.
Others in attendance included Ms Phyllis Ryan, the Hon Garech de Brun, Prof Kevin B. Nowlan, Mr Christopher Fitz-Simon, the Rev Terence McCaughey, Dr Sean MacReamoinn,
Prof George Eogan, Ms Garry Hynes, Mr Michael Colgan, Mr Barry Devlin, Mr James Hickey, Mr Michael West and Mr Fiaich McCongaill.
