{"id":265181,"date":"2026-01-26T19:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/265181\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T19:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:18:10","slug":"brian-crowley-defied-the-odds-to-live-to-age-61-funeral-of-former-mep-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/265181\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Crowley defied the odds to live to age 61, funeral of former MEP hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> MEP and senator Brian Crowley<\/a> was a man of such resilience that he defied the odds and lived until the age of 61, his funeral Mass has heard.<\/p>\n

Mr Crowley of Dunmanway Road, Bandon in Co Cork, died on January 23rd<\/a> last at Cork University Hospital (CUH) following a lengthy illness.<\/p>\n

A wheelchair user, Mr Crowley was paralysed from the waist down when he fell off a building as a teenager. He endured further blows in life when his father Flor, who was a Fianna F\u00e1il TD in west Cork, died at the age of just 62 in 1997. Mr Crowley also lost his brother Flor jnr (42) in 2009 a car crash. <\/p>\n

His brother Niall told mourners at noon Mass in St Patrick\u2019s Church in Bandon that the life of his brother \u201ccould be summed up in the four Fs \u2013 family, friends, faith and fun\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MournersMourners follow the coffin outside the church on Monday. Photograph: Michael Mac Sweeney\/Provision <\/p>\n

He emphasised that Brian was always of the view he was the lucky one because people could see his disability.<\/p>\n

Mr Crowley said it was \u201chugely important\u201d to share with mourners that, following his life-changing accident, Brian was not expected to have a long life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen our mam and dad met the consultants in D\u00fan Laoghaire soon after Brian\u2019s accident, they were told that Brian would not live beyond 25 years of age. Reaching nearly 62 years of age, he certainly overcame that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Crowley overcame many challenges in life and his ability to handle adversity was a rare quality that he possessed, his funeral was told.<\/p>\n

The way his mother and father handled his accident when he was 16 no doubt had a major influence on how Brian would handle the trials and tribulations that life throws up, Niall Crowley said.<\/p>\n

Mr Crowley said that Brian took great pleasure in meeting and talking to \u201cordinary people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"FiannaFianna F\u00e1il TD Christopher O’Sullivan TD and Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan TD at the service. Photograph: Michael Mac Sweeney\/Provision <\/p>\n

\u201cBrian did things quietly and under the radar. He always taught us to be cognisant of when people need help \u2013 and that you should always need to be there to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that his brother had a great sense of humour and adored music and meeting friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrian has an absolutely huge circle of friends \u2013 the diversity of friendship groups epitomised Brian as such an open and engaging person. His friends from school, Bandon, politics and music reflected his huge range of connections.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr Crowley paid tribute to staff at CUH for their incredible care of his brother. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Fr John Newman extended his deepest sympathy to Brian\u2019s mother Sally, his sisters Maeve, Deirdre and Fiona, and his brother Niall following their loss.<\/p>\n

Fr Newman welcomed to the Mass, among others, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin and Comdt Deirdre Newell, aide de camp of President Catherine Connolly, <\/p>\n

He noted that Brian was \u201cvery charming\u201d from that start of his life and exuded a \u201cnatural cheerfulness, and enthusiasm\u201d.<\/p>\n

He stated that Brian endured \u201ctwo further body blows\u201d with the loss of his father and brother.<\/p>\n

Describing Brian as an \u201cexemplary figure in public life\u201d he added that he had continued to work from his hospital bed when his health deteriorated.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never complained. He carried his suffering internally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other attendees at the Mass included Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan, Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy, Government Chief Whip Mary Butler, Cathaoirleach Senator Mark Daly, former Fianna F\u00e1il ministers Eamon \u00d3 Cuiv and Michael Moynihan, Minister of State Christopher O\u2019Sullivan, former Fianna F\u00e1il TD John Dennehy, Cllr Tony Fitzgerald deputising for Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Fergal Dennehy and Cllr Ian Doyle deputising for Mayor of the County of Cork, Mary Linehan Foley. A large number of councillors were also in attendance.<\/p>\n

The Crowley family asked that mourners make donations to St Vincent de Paul in lieu of flowers. After the Mass, Mr Crowley was laid to rest in the adjoining cemetery.<\/p>\n

Mr Crowley was elected to the European Parliament on five occasions and topped the poll in 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. He was also a senator from 1993 until 1994. He retired from politics due to illness in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Fianna F\u00e1il MEP and senator Brian Crowley was a man of such resilience that he defied the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[46,895,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-265181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork","tag-fianna-fail","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}