Larry Kelly a priest of the Diocese of Kerry dies

Fr Larry Kelly died in Fatima Nursing Home in Tralee yesterday. He was in his late 80s. He would have been 88 on 8.8.

Larry was a special person. In many ways an 'old-style' Irish priest. In other ways, not at all.

He was parish priest in Castlegregory when I went to live there when I was working in The Kerryman newspaper. From Castlegregory he moved as pp to Kilgarvan.

An avid GAA follower. His brother Brian, also a priest in the Diocese of Kerry, was well known in the county for his love of the GAA, indeed he was also famous for his sideline comments at matches.

Larry lived a simple frugal life, never drank alcohol. He grew his own potatoes and vegetables and as an elderly man cared for his garden. Those spuds were special and always early. No hiring in people to tend to Larry Kelly's garden. Nothing swank or pompous about Larry.

As a young seminarian he was struck down with TB.

We became good friends. Though we may have had different opinions on many subjects Larry respected me and it was clear that he liked me. There was no 'double speak' from Larry. You knew that what he said was what he meant. There was not a scintialla of 'sleevenery' about the man. Larry was no career priest and never an apparatchik.

He had a great sense of humour, quirky and probably slightly eccentric. Always kind to the old and infirm. A highly intelligent man.

During one of our many discussions he quipped that it would be a silly person who would deny the existence of life somewhere else in the universe.

Larry Kelly took his job seriously.

He has a nephew a parish prist in the Diocese of Kerry and he is also an uncle of Sean Kelly, the former president of the GAA and a current MEP.

Larry Kelly was above all a holy and kind man.