{"id":434232,"date":"2026-05-06T00:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/434232\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T00:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:37:09","slug":"gordon-snell-was-a-force-for-good-and-endlessly-generous-funeral-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/434232\/","title":{"rendered":"Gordon Snell was a \u2018force for good\u2019 and \u2018endlessly generous\u2019, funeral hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The late author Gordon Snell<\/a> was \u201cendlessly generous\u201d and \u201ca force for good,\u201d beloved by his family and friends, his funeral has heard. <\/p>\n

Snell, who was married to fellow author Maeve Binchy<\/a> for 35 years until her death in 2012, died peacefully on April 29th, aged 93, at the home where the couple worked together in Dalkey, Co Dublin<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Snell\u2019s funeral service in The Victorian Chapel, Mount Jerome on Tuesday, heard family and friends recall his \u201cgreat laugh,\u201d his fondness for Paddington Bear, and how his family determined \u201che was Paddington Bear\u201d. <\/p>\n

Snell\u2019s nephew, Chris Binchy, said his uncle was a \u201cforce for good. 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 said. <\/p>\n

Snell was born in Singapore and went to school in Australia, before moving to England with his parents after the second World War, where he attended the University of Oxford. He published his first book for children, The King of Quizzical Island, in 1978. He followed it up with Amy\u2019s Wonderful Nest, Tina and the Tooth Fairy and The Supermarket Ghost, among others. <\/p>\n

For decades, Snell and his wife wrote together in their home, critiquing each other\u2019s work and celebrating each other\u2019s successes. <\/p>\n

\"MournersMourners gather outside The Victorian Chapel at Mount Jerome in Dublin. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n

Sarah Binchy, Snell\u2019s niece, said: \u201cGordon always said how lucky he was to have found such happiness with Maeve.\u201d<\/p>\n

She recalled how \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.\u201d<\/p>\n

She described him as \u201csomeone kind, gentle, optimistic,\u201d who saw \u201conly the best in others\u201d. <\/p>\n

Snell\u2019s friend, the author Henrietta McKervey, who won the first memorial UCD Maeve Binchy Travel Award, described him as \u201cclever, generous, witty, and compassionate.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHe had an enormous capacity for friendship\u201d, she said. <\/p>\n

\"LabourLabour Party leader Ivana Bacik and author Roddy Doyle were among the attendees at the service. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n

Another friend, the literary agent Christine Green, told the mourners that Snell and Binchy dedicated their books only to each other. Green read from some of Maeve\u2019s books\u2019 dedications, each one unique.<\/p>\n

When Binchy died, Snell was distraught but a \u201cwonderful supporter and a guardian of her life\u2019s work. It\u2019s impossible to exaggerate how key Gordon and Maeve were to each other\u2019s success\u201d, she said. <\/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,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The late author Gordon Snell was \u201cendlessly generous\u201d and \u201ca force for good,\u201d beloved by his family and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[37468,615,93,185359,61,60,185358],"class_list":["post-434232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dalkey","tag-dublin","tag-entertainment","tag-gordon-snell","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-maeve-binchy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434232","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=434232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}