Bishop Brendan Comiskey recalled yesterday how Peter Kavanagh quoted Roman poet Catullus at his brother Patrick's funeral in 1967. "Wandering through many countries and over many seas/I come, my brother, to these sorrowful obsequies/To present you with the last guerdon of death/And speak, though in vain, to your silent ashes."
Peter Kavanagh (89) died in New York on January 27th. Addressing the coffin containing "his mute ashes", Dr Comiskey quoted lines by Patrick about him in Prelude which were left out of the Collected Poems - "a particular source of suffering in Peter's life", he said.
"Remember well your noble brother/Whose constant heart embraced no other/But you, and when Love's arteries harden/Evoke the image of the Front Garden/Yellow with sunlit weeds, and there/You are the hound and he the hare/And round and round you run and laugh/This moment is immortal stuff/ Name his name, beloved name Peter/ And only regret that words must fail/To tell that marvellous brotherly tale."
Bishop Comiskey was speaking at Peter Kavanagh's funeral Mass in the Church of Mary Mother of Mercy at Inishkeen, Co Monaghan. The remains were taken there by hearse from the Kavanagh home at Mucker near Inishkeen, led by piper Patrick Martin, with mourners walking behind. They were seen off at the house by Fr Michael Sheerin who spoke of the "great satisfaction, peace and happiness at bringing Peter home".
At the church, parish priest Fr Peter McGuinness, who celebrated the Mass with Bishop Comiskey and Fr John Quinn, a relative of the Kavanagh family, greeted the remains with, "The wanderer has returned to the stony grey stones of Monaghan, for good to share that soil with Patrick, his father and mother."
He spoke of the delight everyone felt at the visit home by Peter last July and how all had been reconciled then.
Bishop Comiskey said there had hardly ever been a brother in the history of humanity who was served as well as Patrick was by Peter. "Quite literally Patrick would have died earlier without the help of Peter and one thing is for sure we would not have the rich legacy of Patrick Kavanagh if not for the gigantic work of Peter," he said.
The remains were buried at the cemetery nearby, just feet from Patrick's grave. "There he goes," said Peter's young grandson Ronan as the coffin was lowered.
Chief mourners were Peter's wife Ann Keeley, their children Keelin and Caomh, grandsons Kane and Ronan, sons-in-law Alan Baer and Rick Cypher and brother-in-law John Keeley.
