Mourners from across the world turned out to attend her funeral at the Church of St Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, Mount Merrion, today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They included former Riverdance lead dancer Padraic Moyles and actor Patrick Connolly Bergin.<\/p>\n
Flatley was tearful as he described the last three weeks as \u201cunbearable\u201d for her as her health worsened, and played her favourite tune on his flute, telling mourners that he looked forward to their next dance together in heaven.<\/p>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791648131_803_.png\")
\n The funeral mass of Niamh Flatley Church of St Th\u00e9rese, Mount Merrion this morning\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0Flatley began his eulogy\u00a0saying \u201chow did we get here?\u201d adding that his legs felt hollow, that he felt empty on the inside, and had brought their son to the front of the church with him for strength.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt a lot of pain in my life,\u201d he told mourners, referencing his past as a boxer and during his dance career.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this morning I have never felt pain like this in my life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe danced around the world for 20 years, and how well I remember her, she was always the dancer immediately on my left because she was the greater dancer we ever had because she was the most beautiful girl in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791648131_889_.png\")
\n A funeral card at the Church of St Th\u00e9rese, Mount Merrion this morning Rolling News<\/p>\n
Rolling News\n<\/p>\n
The priest described O\u2019Brien as a \u201chuman of great faith, selfless in care for others and a spirit believed in doing what was right\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said she was an outstanding ambassador and champion for Irish dance across the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cNiamh loved the lord of the dance in heaven and the lord of the dance on earth too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Originally from Co Meath, Niamh O\u2019Brien began Irish dancing at the age of three and competed professionally until she was 17, when she placed fourth in the world championships.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She performed the lead role of \u2018Saoirse\u2019 in Flatley\u2019s Lord of the Dance show. She also appeared in his shows Riverdance, Feet of Flames and Celtic Tiger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The couple married at St Patrick\u2019s Church in Fermoy, Co Cork, in 2006.<\/p>\n
Their son, Michael St James, was born the following year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Flatley described the last three weeks of O\u2019Brien\u2019s illness as \u201ctorturous and unbearable for her\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s gone to heaven, but heaven is everywhere, heaven is around us all right here today, I believe Niamh is standing beside me right at this moment, I can feel her\u201d, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With additional reporting by PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIVERDANCE AND LORD of the Dance star Michael Flatley has described \u201cnever feeling pain like it\u201d as he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,615,93,61,60,31205,31206,2050,275928],"class_list":["post-650702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-dublin","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-dancing","tag-lord-of-the-dance","tag-michael-flatley","tag-niamh-o"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650702","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=650702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}