Former government minister Séamus Brennan was a distinguished patriot who helped shape a more modern and confident Ireland, the Taoiseach said today.
Speaking in the Church of the Holy Cross, Dundrum, in Mr Brennan's Dublin South constituency, Mr Cowen praised his deceased colleague as "an admired friend and distinguished Irishman".
"I'm proud and honoured to have been asked to pay tribute to him," Mr Cowen said. "Seamus's contribution will live on in the life of the nation."
In his life, Mr Brennan had enjoyed the love of his family and the regard of friends: "His achievements were many and they were of enormous consequence."
The Taoiseach quoted the words of John F. Kennedy on the poet Robert Frost: "A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honours, the men it remembers."
Describing his late colleague as a "brilliant strategist" and a "reforming minister", Mr Cowen continued: "He put his shoulder to the national wheel at a time when it would have been easier to sit on the sideline."
The chief celebrant of the Funeral Mass, Rev Prof Enda McDonagh said it was "an occasion for lamentation but also for celebration". Although he had died before his time, "Seamus's years were filled with love and energy and care and service to his family and to his country."
Noting that one of Mr Brennan's daughters was expecting a child shortly he said: "The cycle is not life and death; the cycle is life, death, life." In his career, the former minister had carried the challenge of restoring "the sense of patriotism, civic duty, above all, public service" to Irish life.
Politics was one of the highest forms of public service. "We are here for the good of others," Father McDonagh said. "It's that kind of legacy we need to cherish in the name of Seamus Brennan."
The church was packed to capacity over half-an-hour before the noonday ceremony began and the main street of Dundrum was closed to traffic because of the crowd. The Taoiseach and other political colleagues formed a guard of honour and accompanied the hearse on foot to the cemetery at the nearby St Nahi's church.
Along with Mr Brennan's wife, Ann, and other family members, the attendance included former taoisigh Bertie Ahern and Albert Reynolds; Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan; Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan; Environment Minister and Green Party leader John Gormley; Minister for Health Mary Harney and other members of the cabinet including Micheál Martin, Éamon Ó Cuív, Eamon Ryan, Mary Hanafin and Brendan Smith along with a wide range of dignitaries and senior figures from different spheres of public life.
