Boyzone singer Stephen Gately who died last week was openly gay. His funeral was held yesterday at the St Laurence O’Toole Catholic Church in inner city Dublin.

YESTERDAY afternoon, in the unlikely setting of Sheriff Street, there was a reconciliation of sorts between two Irelands. The new and the old, the liberal and the conservative came together without hesitation as the Northside brought home for the last time one of its most successful sons.

When Stephen Gately was young, it was probably unthinkable that an openly gay man would be welcomed home to a Catholic church in Dublin’s inner city for a resolutely Catholic funeral, his husband recognised as if they had been a more traditional couple.

In this, if in little else, Irish State and Irish Church have come a long way. But despite all the hoopla and the hype, Stephen Gately’s funeral wasn’t about showbiz or the world of pop or politics. It was a working class community in Dublin sending off one of its own and standing by his family and friends in their hour of need.
…
And, yesterday, Stephen came back to where he came from for the last time, to the church in which he was baptised, where he made his Communion and Confirmation. It was a place he had never forgotten. And while his life may not have been a traditional one by Irish standards, he and his family came back to that most traditional of places yesterday, to the church, packed with love, music, warmth and even laughter — but cold and lonely as any church is when we say goodbye to a brother, a son, or a friend.

Full story:
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/boy-gately-goes-gentle-into-that-good-night-1917253.html