'A compassionate and caring soul': Tributes paid to youth worker and campaigner Don O’Leary

The late Don O’Leary, former director of the Cork Life Centre, made a huge and positive difference to innumerable lives, his funeral Mass heard.

He changed the world for the better through his work as an educator, as a youth worker, as a coach in Na Piarsaigh, as a public representative, and as someone who fought for children’s rights locally, nationally and internationally, Fr Seán O’Sullivan said.

The Church of the Resurrection in Farranree was packed with Mr O’Leary’s family, friends, neighbours, comrades, and many of his former students from the Life Centre.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin was represented by his aide de camp, Commandant Joe Glennon, while the Lord Mayor, councillor Fergal Dennehy, was represented by former lord mayor councillor Tony Fitzgerald.

“Dad was a lot of things to different people,” Don O’Leary Jr told his father’s funeral Mass.

“He was an educator, a colleague, a comrade, a friend, a husband, a father, and a grandfather. And to all of us at one stage in our life, he was a right pain in the arse.”

Mr O’Leary had a passion for many things, his son said, his politics, his work, his sport, and his family, and it was his politics that defined him.

He never compromised his principles, and for that his family was immensely proud of him.

Mr O’Leary Jr made reference to his father’s 1987 conviction for treason as a member of the Provisional IRA and the three years he served in Portlaoise Prison.

Mr O’Leary often said his real crime had been the possession of Sinn Féin election leaflets, and he told this newspaper that, while he had not actually been a member of the proscribed organisation when he was imprisoned, he had become one by the time he was released.

“He was the only man who went to prison innocent and came out guilty,” Don Jr quipped.

Mr O’Leary Jr thanked all who had cared for his father through his long illness, and he paid tribute to his mother, Betty, married to Don for “46 years with three years off for good behaviour”.

His love of his children, Don Jr and Eilis, was the centre of his life, and his grandsons Daniel, James, Eoin, and Cian his pride and joy, he said.

The Life Centre had been a high point of his father’s life, and “he loved every second of it”, Mr O’Leary Jr said.

In the congregation were Fine Gael TD Colm Burke, Sinn Féin TDs Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire and Thomas Gould, among others.

The funeral Mass was celebrated by Fr O’Sullivan, alongside Fr Tomás Walsh and Bishop Emeritus John Buckley. They were assisted by Deacon David Lane.

In a letter read out at the Mass, the Bishop of Cork and Ross, Dr Fintan Gavin, said he had come to know Mr O’Leary over the past six years.

“He was a man who lived the Gospel boldly — in practical love for young people, particularly with the Life Centre. His faith was not just believed but lived.”

Passing through a guard of honour of pupils from his alma mater, the North Monastery, Mr O’Leary’s coffin was brought in and out of the church to Johnny Duhan’s The Voyage, a song made famous by Christy Moore.

Last year, Mr Moore, who had met Mr O’Leary when the Corkman was imprisoned, included a reference to his friend in his song The Big Marquee.

“And there goes Don O’Leary, on the road to Sunday’s Well, up to the Cork Life Centre, to ring the morning bell,” he had written.

On hearing of Mr O’Leary’s passing, Mr Moore told The Echo: “What a mighty warrior was Don, a compassionate and caring soul, a battler against the odds, and a dear friend to so many. We’ll not forget knowing him.”