The curtain comes down on a great double act Declan Higgins reflects on the retirement of Galway funeral directors Kevin and Kathy Kyne The writer Stefan Emunds once said: ‘Time is an illusion, timing is an art’. And with that, a fifty year partnership of faithful service sadly came to an end when Kevin and Kathy Kyne informed their community in Moycullen, Co. Galway that they were retiring from the funeral business. That weekend, a page turned over on a large chapter of the history of the village of Moycullen. I first came to know Kevin and Kathy in 2012 when I started with Conneely Funeral Directors in Galway. I was fortunate in that my seemingly unending apprenticeship (arguably still incomplete) meant that I got the opportunity to observe many funeral directors in their work. While I was virtually unknown within the business, Kevin and Kathy were renowned throughout the county, having run a supermarket in Moycullen for many years and having been solid pillars of their community throughout that time. Kevin also drove a bus that transported people with special needs to and from their homes and care centres; it was not just the bereaved that entrusted their loved ones into Kevin’s care. Kevin and Kathy’s time as funeral directors spanned the transition from providers of vehicles and coffins and burial habits to a profession that now embodies the very essence of
Kevin and Kathy Kyne pictured in the garden of their home in Moycullen in April after the announcement of their retirement (picture courtesy of Seán Lydon) pastoral care. Of the people in their care, they would always have a little anecdote of how they played a part in the theatre that is life in small villages in Ireland; Moycullen is no different. They were, more often than not, looking after their friends and always managed to achieve that delicate balance between genuine empathy and utmost professionalism. Anything less than optimal perfection would not pass beneath their attentive eyes. The smallest details were prioritised alongside the larger ones such as the church, the cemetery or crematorium, the coffin and the funeral notice. In my early days in Flood Street, I remember one
marginally creased shirt being hoisted from my hands by Kathy and taken to be ironed. When she carefully handed it back to me, I realised I had been given an incisive lesson: there is a marked difference between what will suffice and what is perfect. The folding of the sheets of the coffin was a meticulous and delicate process, bordering on ceremonial in its reverence. Everyone entrusted into their care was treated with the utmost dignity, the same level of dignity that would be afforded to a member of their own family; there is no higher standard than that. The Kynes were often asked to look after the funeral FuneralTimes FuneralTimes | | 51
