IRA kidnapping 'hugely traumatic' for Ben Dunne, funeral mass told
An Order of Service for the funeral Mass of Ben Dunne at St Mochta's church in Clonsilla, west Dublin. Pictures: PA
The IRA kidnapping of Ben Dunne was “hugely traumatic for him” and was the source of much of his personal troubles throughout his later life, his funeral has heard.
Mr Dunne’s son, Mark, who was with his father in Dubai when he died suddenly, paid tribute to his “generous” and “ambitious” father but noted a particularly difficult period in his life.
“His kidnapping in 1981 was hugely traumatic on him and it was the source of much of his personal troubles throughout the years that followed,” he told those who gathered to pay their respects to the well-known businessman.
However, Mr Dunne said time is a great healer and his father held no ill will towards his captors saying: “He did the Christian thing and forgave.”
Earlier in the day, a guard of honour was formed by uniformed Ben Dunne Gyms staff who lined the entrance to St Mochta’s Church in Porterstown in Dublin while awaiting the arrival of Mr Dunne’s wicker coffin.
His wife Mary, his children and grandchildren were among hundreds who filled the church beyond its maximum capacity.
A livestream of the funeral was set up in a local community hall due to the number of attendees.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, Independent TD Michael Lowry, and former minister Conor Lenihan were in attendance.
While paying tribute to his father, Mr Dunne thanked staff at the Royal Meridien Hotel in Dubai who were the first responders when his father suffered a heart attack.
He also expressed gratitude to the paramedics and medical staff “who worked so hard to save Dad” before thanking the Irish embassy in Abu Dhabi for their consular assistance.
Mark said his father was incredibly “ambitious and driven”, adding that there was no denying the former Dunnes Stores boss's passion for business.
“At the core of a family business is that word family and family always finds a way of going back to its roots,” he said before paying tribute to his aunt Margaret Heffernan, for whom he said the day was “particularly difficult”.
“Whilst they were both different people with different opinions, they loved each other dearly. They have been a great source of strength to each other over the years,” he said.
He said Mr Dunne and his siblings had some moments which were “unfortunately very public”.
Mark noted that his father, who spent his childhood living in Ringmahon in Cork, had left Presentation Brothers School at an early age, “and he always liked to say that he never failed an exam in his life".
"Well, because he never did an exam,” he quipped.
Paying tribute to his mother, Mary, he said his father saw her as the rock of the family, whom he loved dearly and “relied so much on her sensibility to navigate through any chaos".
He said his parents had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary earlier this year which was “a testament to people who remain committed to their marriage through thick or thin no matter what life has thrown at us over the years.”
Mr Dunne voiced a particular fondness and gratitude for the time he spent travelling with his father adding that “it was never all business and that he knew the importance of getting downtime".
He said family holidays abroad are his most treasured memories when his father was “at his happiest” adding that his last trip to Dubai was “a tonic for him”.
“He was a brilliant and loving father and grandfather, who would do anything to ensure the happiness and joy of his children and grandchildren. There was never a day that would go by without him calling each of us to check in and we're all going to miss those phone calls,” he said.
Those gathered heard that Mr Dunne never liked attending funerals but would always expect a “full report” from his son.
“Well this is one funeral that Dad sadly must attend,” he said before adding: “Even though he didn’t like funerals, I know he’s pleased to see so many people here today.”
He said there was humour in his father’s tendency for malapropisms, recalling one anecdote in which Mr Dunne saw a man park in a disabled parking space and asked him why, to which the man replied that he had a prosthetic leg.
“Well, I have a prostate too and you don't see me parking in a disabled spot,” Mark recalled his father saying, to which the church erupted in laughter.
Mr Dunne said over the past week, the family has been inundated with condolences, the vast majority of which mentioned his father’s generosity, “and generous he was sometimes to a fault".
He said his father “simply just wanted to help”, without the need for public acknowledgement in doing so.
“He wasn't looking to use it as any kind of public redemption. In fact, that openness and willingness to lay out his flaws was a major part of what people found so appealing about him and his personality,” he said.
He said it was raining in Dubai the day that he was returning home to Dublin with his father’s remains, a rarity in general.
“Perhaps it was a desert's way of saying a final goodbye to this good, decent, generous and loving Irishman who loved to visit there so much and who we called our dad. Rest in peace dad, we will all miss you,” he said.
