The PSNI performed the same social function at Jim Daly’s funeral as joyriders do on a quiet Christmas morning.
Creating juvenile noise and an obnoxious overt public awareness of their presence as good people went around their business of trying to live a decent life.
Anybody with even a basic knowledge of the late Professor Jim Daly, his personal values and characteristics could have told you that the chances of a ‘paramilitary’ display at his funeral were nil.
Described at his requiem service by Rev Thomas McGlynn as “modest, humble, shy and self-effacing”, both the IRSP and Jim’s family and friends were very aware that any overt display to mark his passing would have been grossly out of character with Jim’s own personal aesthetic and temperament.
The 84-year-old husband and comrade of fellow academic and fallen IRSP chairperson Miriam Daly, Jim was buried on Saturday afternoon from the home which they shared with their children in Andersonstown in West Belfast. The same home in which terrorists aligned to Margaret Thatcher murdered Miriam, imposing a lifetime of trauma upon them all on June 26th, 1980. His wake was, in fact, the first occasion since on which the front door of the house had been left open for any reason.
As was agreed between the IRSP and Daly family in the days before his funeral, Republican Socialism was represented, but only alongside (and on an equal footing with) the many other rich cultural aspects of his life. A life well lived.
Jim’s obvious love of higher learning and philosophy, of the Irish language and music, of world history and - most notably - of traditional (Pre Vatican II) Catholic theology and practice were all interwoven into an immensely thought provoking and dignified service which was attended by Queen’s University staff and Alumni, members of the Irish language community, and contemporary local artists and musicians alike. An exceptionally dignified and distinguished gathering for a Saturday afternoon in Andersonstown.
Prior to the short walk to mass however, a deliberately small and discreet honour guard, made up of older and younger IRSP members, dressed in civilian white shirts and respectful black ties accompanied the procession to the church; placing a single blue starry plough flag on the coffin just outside the door of the family home before proceeding onwards to St Agnes’ Church.
It was at this point that mourners - the vast majority of them non-political and certainly not in the IRSP - were confronted with the arrival and presence of completely uncalled for and unwelcome armored PSNI jeeps outside the Daly home. One land rover was adorned with a roof mounted tripod and camera, which pointed and turned intrusively at any and all in attendance, before driving up and down the road gathering similar intelligence on new arrivals, where and when they could.
IRSP activists, used to such bog ignorant antics, yet aware that this was a family funeral and not a political event, would not add to any unfolding drama by brazenly taking photographs or capturing footage of armored police surveillance jeeps. Instead, they went about their own discreet task and hoped that the unwelcome intrusion would soon simply pass.
Any such hope of normality diminished however upon the arrival of a loud low flying PSNI helicopter, that also hovered and remained over the attendees for the duration of the entire funeral.
It was inevitably mentioned amongst some gathered, that had Police been as interested in comings and goings from the Daly home on the occasion of Miriam’s murder in 1980, the procession would most likely have been led by Jim’s widow herself.
A short while later during the funeral mass in St Agnes’ chapel, the work of three Philosophers; (Plato, Thomas Aquinas and Karl Marx) provided the center piece for the homily; provided as it was by Andersonstown priest the Reverend Thomas McGlynn.
Reverend McGlynn had been a former Queen’s University pupil of Jim’s, in the old Scholastic Philosophy department now long since disbanded; victim to the many cutbacks which have been inflicted upon University Arts departments in recent decades. Another legacy of Margaret Thatcher.
And he did a grand job of explaining the intellectual link between his old teacher’s trad Catholic spirituality and his worldly political activism in conflict riven Ireland during the period now known as ‘the troubles’. No easy verbal task on the best of days.
Above the roof of the church as he spoke, the PSNI helicopter hovered and circled, while out on the street the PSNI jeeps and newly arrived unmarked cars drove past, stopped, and stared in at those standing outside the church.
In an attempt to further wind up what the PSNI clearly and stupidly thought was “an Irp funeral”, uniformed cops in High Visibility jackets took the opportunity to walk past and glare in at RSYM (Republican Socialist Youth Movement) members who were waiting in the church car park in their ‘blacks and whites’. The young lads wise to their antics refused to let them sully a solemn event and moved to stand in the side chapel doorway out of sight.
Meanwhile inside, as was Reverend McGlynn’s right given the settings we were in, the priest placed a specific emphasis on Jim’s personal preference for the old pre-Vatican II Catholic rites and traditions, including his insistence on celebrating the feast days of saints as per the old church calendar and his particular fondness for the sacred lyrics of Saint Thomas Aquinas and their subsequent interpretation into Gregorian chant.
Where today, it is popular for some families to choose a well-known pop song at a funeral to mark their loved one’s life and passing. Jim Daly’s chosen funeral song was the medieval Gregorian chant known as the Tantum Ergo, the last two paragraphs of a wider epic hymn Pange Lingua, thought to be penned by Saint Thomas Aquinas himself as a musical means to honour and worship the physical presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
As it happened, I had Tantum Ergo as a ringtone on my phone for most of last year and so knew the words and melody quite well, allowing me to sing along with the handful of others who took up Reverend McGlynn’s request for anyone who knew to hymn to sing it with him.
Upon leaving the church I met the young IRSP lads in the doorway who explained to me their reasoning for getting away from the PSNI. Credit should be given to them for having respect for the occasion and for the sanctity of the church where the PSNI quite clearly had none.
At the gates of Milltown cemetery, as mourners filed in for Jim’s burial, the PSNI jeeps and cars had re-appeared just across the road. Previous funerals stewarded by the IRSP had taught that while officers inside the jeeps gather footage, the unmarked cars are present for the purpose of pursuing and stopping mourners as they leave.
At the bottom of Milltown cemetery where Jim Daly would be buried, those attending began to struggle to hear the decade of the Rosary being recited by Reverend McGlyn, as the PSNI helicopter had made a re-appearance. Again, circling above in what genuinely appeared to be an exercise in malevolent disruption as opposed to a maneuver designed to further any intelligence gathering.
Not that there was in truth, any need to gather intelligence on such an unassuming and innocent event as the funeral for an 84-year-old widower, a quiet and dignified victim of the Irish conflict.
Reverend McGlynn concluded the graveside ceremony by singing the Salve Regina. Again a Latin hymn which directly evokes and appeals to the Virgin Mary; asking her in lyrical form to intercede with Jesus for we “the banished children of Eve’ here on earth, beautifully described in the song as ‘in hac lacrimarum valle’ translated as “in this valley of tears”.
By this stage however, the PSNI helicopter was performing the aeriel equivalent of donuts above us, ensuring that only those near the grave could hear what was going on at all. A fellow mourner standing beside me and who had studied Latin for three years, announced that he did not know what the priest was singing due to the sound of the rotor blades.
Myself, being both a Republican and a Queen’s graduate, as well as having a particular fondness for the Salve Regina; a hymn which I also took the time to learn - having heard my mother speak about learning it as a child - I was genuinely thrilled at the thought of hearing a priest sing it at the graveside of Jim Daly.
Upon moving closer to hear the concluding verse however, I was simply seething with frustration at the ongoing and persistent obnoxious noise of the PSNI helicopter, which was now blatantly interfering with the proceedings below. In what of course was a family funeral, but also an occasion of real cultural, political, and academic significance.
The words of TD Richard Boyd Barret (when speaking of plans to abolish Dublin’s Moore Street) seemed fitting when I assessed the situation. “Philistines, utter Philistines” seemed to sum up the attitude of Police to the event that they had just witnessed and which they clearly had zero insight into. The height of culture had been met with the height of ignorance.
I only met Jim Daly once, on the occasion of the IRSPs unveiling of a new mural to his wife Miriam in Beechmount in 2016.
On that occasion while chatting casually to the organisers before the ceremony, Jim spoke philosophically on his belief that “England’s ignorance of the Gael is surpassed only by its fear of the Gael”.
The PSNI’s antics at his funeral proved Jim Daly (as on many occasions) to have been correct.
Anybody with even a basic knowledge of the late Professor Jim Daly, his personal values and characteristics could have told you that the chances of a ‘paramilitary’ display at his funeral were nil.
Described at his requiem service by Rev Thomas McGlynn as “modest, humble, shy and self-effacing”, both the IRSP and Jim’s family and friends were very aware that any overt display to mark his passing would have been grossly out of character with Jim’s own personal aesthetic and temperament.
The 84-year-old husband and comrade of fellow academic and fallen IRSP chairperson Miriam Daly, Jim was buried on Saturday afternoon from the home which they shared with their children in Andersonstown in West Belfast. The same home in which terrorists aligned to Margaret Thatcher murdered Miriam, imposing a lifetime of trauma upon them all on June 26th, 1980. His wake was, in fact, the first occasion since on which the front door of the house had been left open for any reason.
As was agreed between the IRSP and Daly family in the days before his funeral, Republican Socialism was represented, but only alongside (and on an equal footing with) the many other rich cultural aspects of his life. A life well lived.
Jim’s obvious love of higher learning and philosophy, of the Irish language and music, of world history and - most notably - of traditional (Pre Vatican II) Catholic theology and practice were all interwoven into an immensely thought provoking and dignified service which was attended by Queen’s University staff and Alumni, members of the Irish language community, and contemporary local artists and musicians alike. An exceptionally dignified and distinguished gathering for a Saturday afternoon in Andersonstown.
Prior to the short walk to mass however, a deliberately small and discreet honour guard, made up of older and younger IRSP members, dressed in civilian white shirts and respectful black ties accompanied the procession to the church; placing a single blue starry plough flag on the coffin just outside the door of the family home before proceeding onwards to St Agnes’ Church.
It was at this point that mourners - the vast majority of them non-political and certainly not in the IRSP - were confronted with the arrival and presence of completely uncalled for and unwelcome armored PSNI jeeps outside the Daly home. One land rover was adorned with a roof mounted tripod and camera, which pointed and turned intrusively at any and all in attendance, before driving up and down the road gathering similar intelligence on new arrivals, where and when they could.
IRSP activists, used to such bog ignorant antics, yet aware that this was a family funeral and not a political event, would not add to any unfolding drama by brazenly taking photographs or capturing footage of armored police surveillance jeeps. Instead, they went about their own discreet task and hoped that the unwelcome intrusion would soon simply pass.
Any such hope of normality diminished however upon the arrival of a loud low flying PSNI helicopter, that also hovered and remained over the attendees for the duration of the entire funeral.
It was inevitably mentioned amongst some gathered, that had Police been as interested in comings and goings from the Daly home on the occasion of Miriam’s murder in 1980, the procession would most likely have been led by Jim’s widow herself.
A short while later during the funeral mass in St Agnes’ chapel, the work of three Philosophers; (Plato, Thomas Aquinas and Karl Marx) provided the center piece for the homily; provided as it was by Andersonstown priest the Reverend Thomas McGlynn.
Reverend McGlynn had been a former Queen’s University pupil of Jim’s, in the old Scholastic Philosophy department now long since disbanded; victim to the many cutbacks which have been inflicted upon University Arts departments in recent decades. Another legacy of Margaret Thatcher.
And he did a grand job of explaining the intellectual link between his old teacher’s trad Catholic spirituality and his worldly political activism in conflict riven Ireland during the period now known as ‘the troubles’. No easy verbal task on the best of days.
Above the roof of the church as he spoke, the PSNI helicopter hovered and circled, while out on the street the PSNI jeeps and newly arrived unmarked cars drove past, stopped, and stared in at those standing outside the church.
In an attempt to further wind up what the PSNI clearly and stupidly thought was “an Irp funeral”, uniformed cops in High Visibility jackets took the opportunity to walk past and glare in at RSYM (Republican Socialist Youth Movement) members who were waiting in the church car park in their ‘blacks and whites’. The young lads wise to their antics refused to let them sully a solemn event and moved to stand in the side chapel doorway out of sight.
Meanwhile inside, as was Reverend McGlynn’s right given the settings we were in, the priest placed a specific emphasis on Jim’s personal preference for the old pre-Vatican II Catholic rites and traditions, including his insistence on celebrating the feast days of saints as per the old church calendar and his particular fondness for the sacred lyrics of Saint Thomas Aquinas and their subsequent interpretation into Gregorian chant.
Where today, it is popular for some families to choose a well-known pop song at a funeral to mark their loved one’s life and passing. Jim Daly’s chosen funeral song was the medieval Gregorian chant known as the Tantum Ergo, the last two paragraphs of a wider epic hymn Pange Lingua, thought to be penned by Saint Thomas Aquinas himself as a musical means to honour and worship the physical presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
As it happened, I had Tantum Ergo as a ringtone on my phone for most of last year and so knew the words and melody quite well, allowing me to sing along with the handful of others who took up Reverend McGlynn’s request for anyone who knew to hymn to sing it with him.
Upon leaving the church I met the young IRSP lads in the doorway who explained to me their reasoning for getting away from the PSNI. Credit should be given to them for having respect for the occasion and for the sanctity of the church where the PSNI quite clearly had none.
At the gates of Milltown cemetery, as mourners filed in for Jim’s burial, the PSNI jeeps and cars had re-appeared just across the road. Previous funerals stewarded by the IRSP had taught that while officers inside the jeeps gather footage, the unmarked cars are present for the purpose of pursuing and stopping mourners as they leave.
At the bottom of Milltown cemetery where Jim Daly would be buried, those attending began to struggle to hear the decade of the Rosary being recited by Reverend McGlyn, as the PSNI helicopter had made a re-appearance. Again, circling above in what genuinely appeared to be an exercise in malevolent disruption as opposed to a maneuver designed to further any intelligence gathering.
Not that there was in truth, any need to gather intelligence on such an unassuming and innocent event as the funeral for an 84-year-old widower, a quiet and dignified victim of the Irish conflict.
Reverend McGlynn concluded the graveside ceremony by singing the Salve Regina. Again a Latin hymn which directly evokes and appeals to the Virgin Mary; asking her in lyrical form to intercede with Jesus for we “the banished children of Eve’ here on earth, beautifully described in the song as ‘in hac lacrimarum valle’ translated as “in this valley of tears”.
By this stage however, the PSNI helicopter was performing the aeriel equivalent of donuts above us, ensuring that only those near the grave could hear what was going on at all. A fellow mourner standing beside me and who had studied Latin for three years, announced that he did not know what the priest was singing due to the sound of the rotor blades.
Myself, being both a Republican and a Queen’s graduate, as well as having a particular fondness for the Salve Regina; a hymn which I also took the time to learn - having heard my mother speak about learning it as a child - I was genuinely thrilled at the thought of hearing a priest sing it at the graveside of Jim Daly.
Upon moving closer to hear the concluding verse however, I was simply seething with frustration at the ongoing and persistent obnoxious noise of the PSNI helicopter, which was now blatantly interfering with the proceedings below. In what of course was a family funeral, but also an occasion of real cultural, political, and academic significance.
The words of TD Richard Boyd Barret (when speaking of plans to abolish Dublin’s Moore Street) seemed fitting when I assessed the situation. “Philistines, utter Philistines” seemed to sum up the attitude of Police to the event that they had just witnessed and which they clearly had zero insight into. The height of culture had been met with the height of ignorance.
I only met Jim Daly once, on the occasion of the IRSPs unveiling of a new mural to his wife Miriam in Beechmount in 2016.
On that occasion while chatting casually to the organisers before the ceremony, Jim spoke philosophically on his belief that “England’s ignorance of the Gael is surpassed only by its fear of the Gael”.
The PSNI’s antics at his funeral proved Jim Daly (as on many occasions) to have been correct.
Jim Daly (1937-2021) Ora pro nobis!
⏩ Jarlath Toner is a West Belfast republican
No comments