A dignified funeral Mass and burial was held in Carlow for 66-year-old Peadar Doyle, whose body was used in an apparent attempt to claim his pension at a Carlow town post office on Friday morning.
About 100 mourners attended the funeral Mass in the Holy Family Church in Askea, conducted by parish priest Fr Tom Little.
A silent candlelit vigil was held on the town’s Pollerton Road on Sunday, where the single man lived, “to honour the memory of a quiet, decent man”.
There was no reference during Monday’s Mass to the circumstances in which Mr Doyle’s body was presented at Hosey’s Post Office on Staplestown Road, Carlow last Friday at about 11am by two men seeking payment of his weekly pension. The suspicion of an An Post employee was aroused and led to the men dropping Mr Doyle’s body. Gardaí and emergency services were notified but he was found to have died. The bizarre events in Carlow made local, national and international news.
Fr Little, in a short homily during Mass, spoke of the gentleman that was Peadar Doyle and the qualities he brought to his life.
Heartfelt tribute
At the end of Mass, Mr Doyle’s niece Charmaine Dowling paid a full and heartfelt tribute to a man who was greatly loved within the Doyle family circle.
Ms Dowling said Peadar had treated all his nephews and nieces like his own children. “You ran to him if you wanted to cry. And soon you would be dancing around the kitchen table.”
She recalled that he would take her to feed his racing pigeons and would hum songs by Perry Como and Dean Martin, while he would sing lullabies like Gilbert O’Sullivan’s Clair.
She recalled her uncle working as a caretaker, a waiter and as a talented painter who had decorated her room when she was a 15 years old. And he could quote Shakespeare. She also referred to his love of travel which had included road trips in the United States.
On the death of his father, Patrick, Mr Doyle had minded his mother, Annie, “with unrivalled affection”. He was the only one who could fix her pillows, the church heard.
Dignified
She said he was a quiet man, dignified in public but “in private he was a hero” who would not seek recognition for caring for his family, which was most important to him.
“His greatness was not known to many people but [was] to his family and closest friends,” she said. He demonstrated kindness to people and was a lover of animals, she said.
She concluded her tribute by saying that his family will carry his memory with them with pride, for the great man that he was.
Gardaí believe Mr Doyle was already dead when he was taken into the post office. Sources told The Irish Times the results of the investigation to date show the pensioner did not die suddenly at the post office. Gardaí have also unearthed evidence suggesting Mr Doyle was alive earlier that morning. A postmortem has determined there was no foul play but was only able to estimate the time of death as some time on Friday morning.