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Kerry says goodbye to the GAA legend that was Paidi O Se

Hundreds attend funeral of GAA great in Ventry

PATRICK COUNIHAN,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 9:26 AM

Updated Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 9:58 AM

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GAA Kerry legend Paidi O Se

Photo by Google Images

Ventry came to a standstill on Tuesday as Kerry said goodbye to GAA legend Paidi O Se.

The All-Ireland winner’s daughter Siun read a poem in tribute to her dad as Irish sporting greats bade farewell to one of their own.

Mum Maire and children Siun, Nessa and Padraig Og were joined by a who’s who of Irish sport as the coffin was carried from his house across the road to Ventry Parish Church.

President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Enda Kenny were represented by their aides-de-camp Col Brendan McAndrew and Cmmdt Michael Treacy at the funeral of the 57-year-old.

Former Kerry manager Mick O’Dwyer, footballers Mick O’Connell, Ger Power, former supreme court judge Hugh O’Flaherty and rugby great Mick Galwey were amongst those in attendance.

At the wake in his family home on Monday, O Se’s eight All-Ireland medals lay on his Kerry jersey and graced his open casket.

Also there were former Irish PM Brian Cowen, current Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan, recent Kerry manager Jack O’Connor, players Mikey Sheehy and Paudie Lynch, Ogie Moran and Eoin Liston.

Cork football manager Conor Counihan was also present alongside Billy Morgan and Larry Tomkins.

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody and former ministers Dick Spring and Gerry Collins also paid their respects.

Broadcaster and neighbour Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh told the Irish Times: “One of his greatest virtues was loyalty, and he was loyal to his culture, to his football and to his locality.

“He was always out promoting the Dingle peninsula as best he could and he was a big attraction in his own right. Everything he did in life, he gave it 100 per cent.”

GAA President Liam O’Neill led the Association’s tribute at Tuesday’s funeral.

He said: “There was hardly a person on the island of Ireland, never mind in the GAA, who did not recognise or know of Páidí Ó Sé, such was his contribution to the Association and to Irish life over a prolonged period.

“His excellence on the field of play in what was the greatest football team of all time still stands out to those of us who saw it and his passion for the game in no way ended with the completion of his playing days.

“His elevation to management, firstly at U21 level but then at senior, saw his reputation further embellished and he is one of the few people to have succeeded in claiming All-Ireland honors both as a manager and a player after a distinguished career that stretched far beyond his native Kerry.

“Páidí’s affection for the Irish language and Irish culture in general were other hall marks of a man who was steeped in the area he called home.

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cillowen | Dec 19, 2012, 11:08 AM EST

Giant - RIP

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esatdigiwank | Dec 19, 2012, 05:20 AM EST

I should also add that Gaelic has sounds distinct from other languages. Its spoken phonetics were not taught constructively in the elementary classroom when i was a nipper and i don't presume things have advanced since. We were tortured with Tuiseal Ginideach (Genitive Case) instruction from early on - and that battle was quickly lost.

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esatdigiwank | Dec 19, 2012, 02:10 AM EST

Gaeltacht parents don't know how to pass on the language..Is this down to Decades of exposure to Irish learnt as a Classical language rather than a Living language? Education system has a lot to answer for; murdering Gaelic and rendering it as a textbook language is one of them.

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cazm | Dec 18, 2012, 02:38 PM EST

I did not claim to be an expert on the language I merely stated that the children's first language is Irish. In fact they could not speak English until the age of 6.

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WoundedKnee | Dec 18, 2012, 02:17 PM EST

Sorry, cazm: Making an assertion is not proof. I heard the young people speak, and I am merely stating a linguistic fact. Their Irish is not native. It's imperfect, especially in pronunciation. That's not an attack, it's a statement of fact. The language is dying in front of us, and will be gone in a decade or two. What is left of gaeltacht parents are not passing on the language to the next generation. It seems that O'Se, for all the love people say he had for the language (I can't say whether that reputation was merited or false) did not pass on Irish as a first language to his children. Even your own post contains two grammatical errors in one sentence, cazm. Learn the language before posturing as an expert on it.

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cazm | Dec 18, 2012, 11:02 AM EST

I happen to be a friend of the family and can confirm that Irish is the first language of his children and that they use it on a daily basis so I do not know why you have made such an ill informed statement. Tá an Gaeilge go brea beo i gCiarraí agus i measc muintir Uí Shé

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WoundedKnee | Dec 18, 2012, 10:56 AM EST

Reposting (the Irish Central site does very odd things with languages other than English):-------I watched some of the mass online from RTE. It was a sad occasion. There was a lot of Gaeilge bhinn from the older priests, but I was saddened also to see how the Irish language is dying. O'Shea, I am told, had been a fluent native speaker of Irish. Yet his children who read the readings were obviously not native speakers, they weren't even fluent and had poor pronunciation. The Irish language will die within decades, and with it will die any reason for Ireland to constitute a separate independent country.

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WoundedKnee | Dec 18, 2012, 10:53 AM EST

I watched some of the mass online from RTE. It was a sad occasion. There was a lot of from the older priests, but I was saddened also to see how the Irish language is dying. O'Shea, I am told, had been a fluent native speaker of Irish. Yet his children who read the readings were obviously not native speakers, they weren't even fluent and had poor pronunciation. The Irish language will die within decades, and with it will die any reason for Ireland to constitute a separate independent country.

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