Northern Ireland

Family and friends bid farewell to 'extraordinary' peacemaker Ciaran McKeown at funeral

The funeral of peace activist and journalist Ciaran McKeown at the Good Shepard Church on Belfast's Ormeau Road. Picture by Mal McCann
The funeral of peace activist and journalist Ciaran McKeown at the Good Shepard Church on Belfast's Ormeau Road. Picture by Mal McCann The funeral of peace activist and journalist Ciaran McKeown at the Good Shepard Church on Belfast's Ormeau Road. Picture by Mal McCann

PEACE activist and journalist Ciaran McKeown told his family shortly before his death that the "last 14 months have been one of the most beautiful and rewarding periods of my life for which I am truly grateful".

Mourners packed the Good Shepherd Church on south Belfast's Ormeau Road to bid farewell to the "gentle human being" who founded, along with Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams, the Peace People - the largest pacifist movement of the Troubles.

Among those gathered were former SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell and party colleagues Claire Hanna, Donal Lyons, human rights lawyer Padraigin Drinan, actor Alan McKee and President Michael D Higgins's aide de camp Captain Paul O'Donnell.

Although colleagues from his peace activism, journalism career and involvement with the Lyric Theatre were strongly represented, it was primarily as a "dedicated father", adoring husband and devoted grandfather, who "died with serene dignity", that he was remembered in both the moving homily and eulogy.

Daughter Rachel Corrigan said the 76-year-old "was brave both morally and physically" and "made many friends throughout his life (who are) here today to witness the passing of a great man".

"He was extraordinary, one of a kind and and leaves behind a profound legacy for both his family and friends, and for the wider community."

She told how "the loss of his wife Marianne caused him the deepest distress imaginable, from which he never fully recovered", with Mrs McKeown "his sternest critic and staunchest ally", giving him the stable base on which all his achievements were built.

Fr Patrick McKenna, a former parish priest who returned to celebrate Requiem Mass, said he "had the ability to make you think, respect what you had to say, but he didn't necessarily agree with you".

Mr McKeown, whose family had left the Waterside area of Derry when he was aged seven, entered the Dominican Order as a novice, leaving eight months later after deciding "monastic life was not for him".

He went on to work for the Irish Press, News Letter, The Irish News and Daily Mirror.

"We respected each other from a distance, for our paths took different directions after our scholastic philosophy sojourn with Dr Theodore Crowley, the famous Franciscan priest in the Scholastic Philosophy Department of QUB," Fr McKenna said.

"I remember how Theodore would always refer to him as Master Ciaran and how he appreciated Ciaran's intellectual powers.

"Theodore would also have admired Ciaran's committed efforts (in the words of Mairead Corrigan's tribute) `to steer the Peace People boat though the turbulent waters of Northern Irish troubles and politics'."

He paid tribute to Mr McKeown as "the instigator and writer of the Peace People Declaration, who planned and was present at peace rallies and who was very much director of the peace movement".

After the Mass, his children and grandchildren together carried the simple, garlanded wicker casket from the church before the cortège proceeded to Roselawn crematorium.