Buckley, Denny 'Dinny'
August 18, 2009It was, in every sense, what I expected it would be - a truly fitting, final, farewell to a Lismore hurling legend.
Denny (Dinny") Buckley was laid to rest in St. Carthage's cemetery last Wednesday, his coffin draped in the black and amber club colours on its brief and poignant last journey. It seemed as though every man, woman and child in his hometown was a part of that impressive final tribute, with GAA people from many other parts also swelling the ranks.
Aged just sixty, Dinny was found dead in the bathroom of his home the previous Saturday, the unexpectedness of his death leaving a pall of gloom hanging heavily over the Cathedral town.
At the graveside Munster Council chairman and fellow Lismore clubman Jimmy O'Gorman delivered a moving oration in which he recalled Dinny's colourful GAA career with the club stretching back to 1965 when his blinding goalkeeping display did so much to bring the Western minor hurling championship.
He recalled too Dinny's sterling last line of defence displays as Lismore won the Under 21 Junior west and county championship double in 1967, and the sheer splendour of his net minding as Lismore were crowned intermediate championship in 1969 to regain a senior status which they have retained to this very day.
The Munster Council chairman also placed on record Dinny's huge involvement on the administrative side of the club after his playing days were over. Chairman of both the Juvenile and senior sections at different periods, a selector at virtually every level, and of course the groomsman supreme who always had the playing pitch and dressing rooms in pristine condition.
Jimmy also recalled the great moment of tragedy in his life when his wife - the former Brenda Mellor of Passage East passed away at the young age of thirty seven, leaving him to bring up his daughter Laura - then just three years old - on his own. "That he succeeded in that huge responsibility is to be seen in the exemplary and beautiful young lady which Laura is today", he said.
Concluding his moving tribute, the Munster Council chairman said that as a friend, as a neighbour, and as a fellow townsman Dinny Buckley reined supreme. "Honour and integrity flowed through every vein in his body and it was so much more than a pleasure to have known and befriended him", he went on. "It was in the truest sense a privilege".
"You have played your last game Dinny and as always you played it to the final, if sadly, premature whistle. Your place in Lismore GAA history is assured, and for as long as the club is existence in the Cathedral town the revered name of Denny Buckley will be apart of it".
Well spoken Jimmy O'Gorman, and how aptly all of your words sum up the great and the legendary Dinny Buckley. To Laura, his brothers Patsy and Liam - two fine Lismore hurlers also - his sisters Margaret, Teresa and Catherine, and all the other members of the Buckley family sincerest sympathy is offered.
Courtesy of the Waterford News
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