'Dad is gone 15 years next week - because his presence is everywhere, it feels like five minutes'

It was the love poem, the earthy yet eloquent hymn, the soundtrack of our crushing grief, as we shouldered my father's coffin from the church. Finbar Furey's singular delivery, his beautiful, haunting, lived-in articulation, his voice seemingly lubricated by a shot of gravel, every atom of his being invested in the lyrics, invaded the congregation's bloodstream. "I never will forget him.

For he made me what I am. Though he may be gone, Memories linger on, And I miss him, the old man." READ MORE : Clare v Cork viewers make hilarious Roy Keane comparison during All-Ireland final As the sobs and unforgettable banjo melody scorched into our consciousness, it was as if some emotional mixologist was stirring together the tears and music and verse to create the perfect bereavement cocktail.

Dad is gone 15 years next week - because his presence is everywhere, because love is immortal, it feels more like five minutes - but, recently, that 2009 hour that so wrinkled our universe thundered back across the decades to again seize us in its vice-like and affecting grip. A reminder of what it is to lose the man who gifted me life, a giant of my world, to awaken memories of a day, that, irony of ironies, will never die. The occasion was another funeral - of the great Maxi MacManamon, father of Dublin football's 2011 liberator, Kevin.

When the first chords of that banjo pierced the silence, the jolt carried the force of Mike Tyson's balled right fist. I could feel my father so close at my sid.