A former Lissycasey councillor has been remembered as “both an honest man and a great politician”.
Long-serving member of Clare County Council and founding member of Lissycasey GAA Club PJ Kelly has been laid to rest in Lissycasey Cemetery this afternoon following his passing over the weekend.
Public servant, family man, educator, performer, fluent Irish speaker, ardent GAA supporter and lover of all things equestrian and automotive – these are just some of the ways the congregation at PJ Kelly’s funeral mass this afternoon were told he’ll be remembered.
Hundreds packed into Our Lady of the Wayside Church in Lissycasey this afternoon to pay their respects to the former Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council, including politicians past and present and Tanáiste Micheál Martin’s Aide De Camp, Captain Essie O’Connell.
Over the course of the service officiated by PJ’s brother Father Artie Kelly, those in attendance were regaled with stories of the retired councillor’s wit, intelligence, work ethic and his umistakeable qualities of “kindness and contentment”.
Born in 1940, PJ attended national school in Lissycasey before progressing to the CBS in Ennis and later received a scholarship to attend St. Patrick’s Teacher Training College in Drumcondra.
His first teaching post was at Lisheen National School and he also did a spell at Clondrinagh National School prior to pursuing a Higher Diploma in Education at University College Galway which led him to secure a position at St. Michael’s Vocational School in Kilmihil where he taught for close to 20 years.
Father Artie told mourners that in a long life in which he achieved a great deal, his love for and dedication to his native parish of Lissycasey never faltered.
A number of gifts were presented as part of the procession including a statuette of a horse’s head bestowed on him last year to mark his 50 years of service on Clare County Council, as well as an original Lisheen GAA Club jersey and a hurley to symbolise his passion for GAA.
PJ was first elected to Clare County Council in 1974 and his contribution to his community, the congregation was told, could be felt everywhere, from the stained glass windows of the church, the commissioning of which he played a part in, to the crest of Lissycasey GAA Club which he helped to design as well as its motto “dílis dá chéile” meaning “loyalty to each other”, to the 132 streetlights dotted along a four-kilometre stretch of the N68 known locally as “PJ Kelly’s highway”.
In a wide-ranging and heartfelt eulogy, PJ’s son Barry John said while his father was a man of many gifts, public service was his greatest strength of all.
Ever the family man, it was only fitting that a contribution through the medium of song was made by PJ’s granddaughter Laura.
Mourners were also told of PJ’s penchant for water divination, with Barry John referencing Mayor of Clare Alan O’Callaghan’s quip that in a hypothetical match between Clare and Cork’s county councillors, there’d be no need to bring water to Croke Park as PJ would find it there.
To acknowledge this facet of the man, PJ’s daughter Alma concluded the mass with a recitation of Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘The Diviner’ before a guard of honour saw him off on his final journey.
PJ is survived by his wife Maura, children, Aoife, Alma and Barry John, brothers and sisters Seamus, Fr. Artie, Tadhg, Loretta and Angela, sons in law Cormac and David, daughter in law Úna, grandchildren Laura, Bryan, Ódhran, Eva, Iarla, Saibh and Róise, brothers in law, sisters in law, nieces, nephews and a large circle of friends.
You can listen to the full report here:
