Donal Creed ‘most proud’ of being returned by his constituents

Former Fine Gael minister of state Donal Creed drew great pride from being elected time and again by the people he represented in Co Cork, his daughter Marcella Creed told mourners at his funeral Mass on Monday.

She said that while her father enjoyed his time on Cork County Council, in Dáil Éireann and in the European Parliament, he drew his greatest satisfaction from serving and being endorsed by his constituents. Mr Creed (93) died on Thursday after being in poor health for some time.

“He served as a TD from 1965 until 1989 and he was also honoured to serve in a junior ministerial role in health, education and the environment - there were challenges, ups and downs and some significant achievements too,” she told the congregation at St Colman’s Church in Macroom.

“He was proud to instigate the setting up of the National Lottery against some stiff opposition but most of all he was proudest to be continually endorsed by the people of this constituency in all eight general elections he contested from 1965 until 1989.”

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Leading the mourners were his widow Madeleine and their daughters Marcella, Michelle, Madeleine, Suzanne and Louise and their son, Michael Creed, the Minister for Agriculture.

First love

Ms Creed said after her father’s retirement from politics in 1989, he reverted to his first love of farming and in more recent years, tending his vegetable garden at home in Macroom. He took great pride in always having the best new potatoes in the family, she said.

“He had an undying faith in the power of a wheelbarrow and farmyard manure despite the adverse effects on my mother’s rockery plants which caused some marital conflict,” she said.

“He eagerly awaited the season’s new potatoes and used to boast that his were better than those of others in the family who would dare to compete with him in this area ... those of you who knew my uncle, John will knows pride in new potatoes was something that ran deep in this family.”

She said he loved his children and 25 grandchildren and she recalled how he used to play with them and do their bidding in whatever game or project they had conjured up.

“He had time in his retirement to delight in the company of his 25 grandchildren and would usually go down the level of the child. I can still hear my mother saying: ‘Donal, you are worse than any child’ as he played in the sandpit or in the bouncy castle or slid down the banister with them.”

Among the figures from the world of politics to pay their respects at Mr Creed’s funeral Mass, celebrated by Mons James O’Donnell, were: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney, Ministers of State David Stanton, Joe O’Reilly and Andrew Doyle.

Others to attend included Fine Gael Senators, Jerry Buttimer and Tim Lombard, Cork North Central Fianna Fáil TD Billy Kelleher, former Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes and former Fine Gael TDs, Bernard Allen, Jim O’Keeffe, Avril Doyle, Tom Hayes and Paul Bradford.

Among the others to pay their respects were Mayor of Cork County Cllr Declan Hurley, former Cork All-Ireland winning footballer Colman Corrigan, former Cork County Sheriff Michael O’Driscoll, former Lord Mayor of Cork Donal Counihan and former IFA president Tim O’Leary.