The 71-year-old peer, who used a wheelchair since contracting polio when he was a teenager, was president of the Irish Wheelchair Association for 25 years and spent much of his life fund-raising and campaigning on behalf of people with disabilities.
Many members of the association were at St Nicholas Church in Adare for his funeral yesterday. Lord Dunraven was laid to rest afterwards at his family’s plot in the cemetery on the grounds of the old golf club at Adare Manor.
The Dunraven family lived at Adare Manor before selling it in the early 1980s to an American businessman, Tom Kane.
Pupils from St Nicholas Church of Ireland School provided a guard of honour as the funeral cortege arrived at the church. Members of the Derrynane Inshore Rescue Service from County Kerry lined the route afterwards as mourners accompanied the coffin by foot to its final resting place.
Chief mourners were Lord Dunraven's widow Geraldine Lady Dunraven; and their daughter, Lady Ana Johnson; and his sisters Lady Melissa and Lady Caroline.
In his homily the chief celebrant, the Rev Stan Evans, paid tribute to a man “who used his position for the betterment of others”. Four former rectors of Adare, including the Venerable Robert Warren, Rev Rachel Lewis, Rev George Chambers and Venerable Michael Nutthall, attended yesterday’s service.
The RC Bishop of Killala, Dr John Fleming, and the Abbot of Glenstal, Brother Mark Hederman, were also present. The congregation also included many well-known figures from the world of horse racing including Johnny Harrington, Sonia Rogers, Tommy Stack and Edward O’Grady.
Lord Charles Beresford, William Montgomery of Grey Abbey and the antiques expert, George Stackpoole, were among those who recited readings and prayers.
Lord Dunraven's life-long friend, Benjamin Jellett, recalled his friend’s great passion for horses and coursing and his love of nature and Derrynane in Kerry, where he enjoyed many holidays. Mr Jellett paid tribute to the work his friend did on behalf of the Irish Wheelchair Association:-
“He wasn’t just a name on headed paper for the Irish Wheelchair Association. He was there because he really wanted to help. He travelled up and down the country campaigning and fundraising,” he recalled.
In a poignant tribute to her late husband, Lady Dunraven named and thanked every health care worker who looked after her husband since he contracted polio in 1956 and had his first tracheotomy and more recently since he was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
Following the death of the 7th Earl the titles became extinct.
Dunraven arms courtesy of European Heraldry.
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