A uniformed band played ahead of the hearse as they brought Davy Byrne’s body down the Garvaghy Road to be buried.

Davy came to Portadown 28 years ago, after working on social services in Gardiner Street.

A uniformed band played ahead of the hearse as they brought Davy Byrne’s body down the Garvaghy Road to be buried. Davy came to Portadown 28 years ago, after working on social services in Gardiner Street. They brought him back from Dublin to bury him in St John’s. This is what he wanted because of all that he has gone through with the Portadown people over the past 28 years. He was with them during the bad times of the 1980s and 90s, and also when they were going through some personal trouble, when they lost a loved one or suffered depression.

He had a great love of God and of prayer. He used to talk of Holy Cross, the Benedictine monastery in Rostrevor, as his second spiritual home, especially in later years when his health failed. He said that his real work was being present to people. When he was present and listening to them, God was present. It was also very important to him that some of his closest friends were Protestants.

For many years he attended meetings of the European Jesuit Workers’ Group. These were Jesuits who worked alongside people in difficult situations in factories and tried to find Christ in their situation. It was important to Davy that these Jesuits came from many different European countries: he knew the Society is an international body. It really mattered to him that he was a Jesuit brother. He never had any desire to be a priest. He knew that he could do things as a brother that priests cannot. He would have loved his own funeral – the band, the hosts of neighbours and friends, including Cardinal Sean Brady, the sense of a life fulfilled. A fellow Jesuit said it was the happiest funeral he ever attended. May the Lord be good to him.