By Peter Kelly at the Funeral of Dr Éamon Phoenix, St Brigid’s Church, Belfast
Mourners at the funeral of renowned Irish ‘broadcaster, historian and peacemaker’ Dr Éamon Phoenix paid tribute to his legacy and contribution to Northern Ireland’s peace process.
Celebrant priest Fr Edward O’Donnell at St Brigid’s Church near Belfast’s Queen’s University spoke of Dr Phoenix’s expertise in bringing people together.
“With his grasp of his subject, and with his very considerable skill as a communicator, he imparted to unionist and nationalist, orange and green, Protestant and Catholic, a greater understanding of our shared past,” he said.
The Requiem Mass and Celebration of Éamon Phoenix’s life included representatives of the Taoiseach and President, former Ministers, local MPs, Stormont Assembly Members, broadcasters, journalists and authors in attendance. Former pupils of the popular teacher and lecturer joined a wide family circle, led by his surviving wife Alice, daughter Mary-Alice, son-in-law Stuart and granddaughter Nicole.
Despite his “extraordinary academic workload” alongside multiple ongoing projects, Fr O’Donnell said Dr Phoenix’s priority was always with his family. “Alice and Éamon met at Christmas 1978, described by Éamon as the best moment of his life, and Alice as ‘the love of my life, a great companion and my best friend.’”
A picture of the couple on their wedding day in 1980 adorned the Order of Service booklet distributed at the Mass.
Colm Dore, a former pupil of the historian at St Malachy’s College in Belfast recounted how teenage classmates paid the teacher the ultimate compliment during their time at the school.
He recalled an occasion where the group of boys “bunked off” classes on a sunny day, only to realize that they would be missing the revered “Doc Phoenix’s lesson in the process.”
So they took two buses across the city to “bunk back into class” in order to experience the teacher’s warm wisdom, which could include passing around original historical documents in the classroom written by Michael Collins himself.
BBC Northern Ireland presenter William Crawley was a close friend of Dr Phoenix, and hosts the flagship daily current affairs show, ‘Talkback’ on Radio Ulster. He told the Irish Examiner USA: “I often introduced Éamon as the BBC’s unofficial historian. Though he was an independent, expert commentator, he was really a member of our broadcasting family.
“He believed in the power of truth to confound misunderstandings of every kind. And in a divided society, his response was an evidence-based project of reconciliation.”
Éamon Phoenix lived the biblical wisdom of truth providing freedom which in turn promoted reconciliation, confirmed Fr O’Donnell. “He set us free, free from myths and misunderstandings, and free from misinformation concerning our past. He once commented ‘we have a common history but not a common memory.’”
Tributes to Dr Phoenix’s vast contribution to education, passionate promotion of shared history and reconciliatory common-ground will ensure that memories of his legacy will long insist on the epithet of ‘national treasure’ status throughout Ireland.