The late David Davin-Power was an intelligent and consummate broadcaster, a great storyteller but also a loyal family man and dear friend to many, his funeral mass has been told.
The funeral of Mr Davin-Power, RTÉ's former political correspondent and Northern editor, who died last week at the age of 72, was held on Tuesday at the Church of St Vincent de Paul in Marino.
In a tribute to the late broadcaster, known by all who knew him as DDP, his friend and former RTÉ colleague Bryan Dobson praised his eloquence as a broadcaster, the quality and depth of his analysis, and his ability to coin a phrase that “just summed up a situation”.
“DDP was the best of company. His conversation sparkled; it was witty, informed, opinionated and wide-ranging,” he told the congregation.
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“He was the only journalist I know who regularly quoted from the classics, frequently in the original Latin, showing the benefits of a Jesuit education and a well-furnished mind.
“Indeed, such was his intelligence and the breath of learning that David could have had any career he chose. But he chose journalism and it was the great benefit of Irish journalism that he did so.”
Mr Dobson said Mr Davin-Power was also immensely proud of his family, his wife Dearbhla Collins, and his five children: Emily, Ben, Julia, Caroline and Nick, along with his grandchildren with whom he was “besotted”.
His extended family were the chief mourners at the Mass, at which the chief celebrant was Fr Bernard Treacy SJ, assisted by Fr Thomas Noone, PP, and Fr Patrick Greene SJ.
Immediately after the communion, Ms Collins, a renowned pianist, accompanied mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, who sang Allerseelen by Richard Strauss as a tribute to her husband. There was a sustained round of applause from the congregation.
The funeral mass was attended by the President Michael D Higgins, his aide-de-camp Col Stephen Howard, as well as Commandant Claire Mortimer, aide-de-camp of Taoiseach Simon Harris, who attended on his behalf.
Mr Davin-Power’s son, Nick, said that in his final illness his father had shown grace, good humour and “bravery to the bitter end.”
He recalled that as children living in Belfast, Mr Davin-Power had shielded them from the “darker side” of the Troubles, once scrubbing off sectarian graffiti from a wall at their home before they could see it. When president Bill Clinton was introduced to his father in 1998, he asked him how long he had been in Northern Ireland. Nick said his father had replied: “Six years Mr President and all for something I did not do.”
His daughter, Caroline Davin-Power, told the congregation that her father was “omnipresent in all our lives”. She said in the last few difficult weeks of his illness he told her the “luckiest thing that can happen to a man is to have a family”.
Among the large congregation who attended the funeral were former taoiseach Bertie Ahern; Richard Bruton TD; former TD Finian McGrath; former senator Donie Cassidy; Senator Michael McDowell; former TD Alex White; former senator Maurice Manning; former senator Lorraine Higgins; photographer Charlie Collins; former economic journalist Brendan Keenan; PR executive Stephen O’Byrne; PR executive Richard Moore; academic Jacqueline Hayden; former Irish ambassador to the US Dan Mulhall; former editor of the Evening Press Dick O’Riordan; senior counsel Paul O’Higgins; former chief justice Frank Clarke; former film censor John Kelleher; and secretary general of the Department of Health Robert Watt.
Many of his colleagues from RTÉ, and other broadcasters, attended including RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst; journalist David McCullagh; former director of news Ed Mulhall; Áine Lawlor; Paul Reynolds; Carole Coleman; Paul Cunningham; Marty Whelan; Dónal Byrne; Seán O’Rourke; Joe Duffy; Ray Burke; Fiona Mitchell; Cathy Grieve; Mark Little; Margaret Ward; Michael O’Kane; Shane McElhatton; Eileen Dunne; Joe Little; and Shane Harrison.
There were many former colleagues from the Leinster House political gallery including Stephen Collins; John Lee; Fiach Kelly; Senan Molony; Tim Ryan; Gene McKenna; Deaglán de Bréadún; Miriam Lord; and Daniel McConnell.
The other musicians who performed at the Mass were pianist Dearbhla Brosnan; violinists Michael d’Arcy and Mia Cooper; cellist Ailbhe McDonagh; and Robin Panter on viola.
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