He died peacefully at home on Wednesday at the age of 93.<\/p>\n
His funeral took place in the Victorian Chapel Mount Jerome at Harold\u2019s Cross on Tuesday, and was followed by cremation.<\/p>\n
His nephew, Chris Binchy, who paid a tribute, described his uncle as a \u201cforce for good\u201d.<\/p>\n
“He was endlessly generous. He had a great laugh, the actual physical laugh, which was never far away and made you glad to be around it,\u201d he told mourners.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis enthusiasm for the Irish language might make a native non-speaker think they should give it another go.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a force for good. The world is a sadder place without Gordon in it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Sarah Binchy, his niece, spoke of the relationship between Snell and his late wife.<\/p>\n
“Gordon always said how lucky he was to have found such happiness with Maeve. He always talked about Maeve in the present tense and, as my cousin William has observed, everything for Gordon was \u2018we\u2019, not \u2018I\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cGordon loved the Paddington films, and when he and my parents saw Paddington 2 together, my father Billy came out with the epiphany. He said: \u2018Gordon is Paddington\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone who came from overseas, made his home in a new place. Someone kind, gentle, optimistic. He sees only the best in others. <\/p>\n
\u201cHis beautiful nature wins him friendship, admiration, and belonging wherever he goes,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Snell\u2019s friend, author and recipient of the inaugaral UCD Maeve Binchy Travel award, Henrietta McKervey, recalled the first time she met him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was May 27, 2014. I was so nervous that I fell going in the door of Newman House. There was an event at which he was to give me the new award, the Maeve Binchy UCD Travel Award, which he had established and funded in Maeve’s honour at UCD.<\/p>\n
“But as soon as I was introduced to him, I realised how silly I had been to be nervous, for he was immediately warm and friendly,\u201d she added, describing him as \u201cclever, generous, witty, and compassionate\u201d.<\/p>\n
Christine Green, who worked with the couple for many years, first met Maeve Binchy in 1979, when she was already married to Gordon for two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen she died, though he was unutterably bereft, he continued to be a wonderful supporter and a guardian of her life’s work. It’s impossible to exaggerate how key Gordon and Maeve were to each other’s success.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery writer has a team of people behind them, but none could ever be as important as Gordon was to Maeve and Maeve to Gordon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey worked side by side, read and critiqued each other’s work. They celebrated each other’s successes and their celebrations were always inclusive, warm and generous.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey travelled the world together and the world travelled to them. Gordon loved his adopted country and his adopted country loved him right back,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Snell was a British-born author wrote of children\u2019s books, including Amy’s Wonderful Nest, The Supermarket Ghost, and The Phantom Horseman.<\/p>\n
He also worked in media, including as a BBC radio producer in London, where he met his wife in 1970.<\/p>\n
The couple married in 1977 and lived together at a home in Dalkey, Binchy\u2019s hometown, where he continued to live following his wife\u2019s death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He died peacefully at home on Wednesday at the age of 93. His funeral took place in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2540,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-433573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-adrianna-wrona","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433573","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=433573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}