Friends and family recount a true Limerick Gael

Limerick man David (better known as Dáithí) Dwane, died in London earlier this year in his 103rd year.

Dáithí was born into a strong Republican family in Kilmallock, during the War of Independence in 1920. At the time of his birth, his father, a writer also named David Dwane, was working on the first biography of his friend, Eamon de Valera.

The late Dáithí was twin brother of the late Eamon Dwane, Co Mayo.

Dáithí chose to leave Ireland and spent almost all of his adult life in London, arriving there during a German air raid in 1943.

Very quickly he was enlisted as a Fire Guard by the Metropolitan Borough of Hammersmith. He later joined the British Army and was a member of the Allied Control Council military police who guarded Rudolf Hess, the former Deputy Führer of the Nazi Party, during his imprisonment in Spandau Prison.

Dáithí fought in the Korean War as part of the United Nations armed forces mandated by Security Council Resolution 82. He operated primarily as a sniper and was awarded a medal by the UN.

He later worked for many years in the security department of The Savoy Hotel, London until his retirement in the 1980s.

Dáithí was a fine sportsman, maintaining admirable levels of fitness well into his 90s. He was a great hurler and Gaelic footballer as a young man in Ireland.

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But tennis was his passion, becoming a champion provincial player along with his twin brother Eamon while a youth and later continuing his affection for the game with yearly attendance at the Wimbledon tennis championships over many decades.

A devout Catholic and a friend to many people in the Southwark Borough area of London, he attended daily Mass in his local church, English Martyrs Roman Catholic Church, Walworth, London, where he also served at liturgies.

Dáithí was uncle to David, Eamon, Jacqueline and Garvan Dwane, all formerly of Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo.

He is also survived by his brothers Sean (USA) and Frank (Dublin), nephews and nieces in the USA, and grandnephews and grandnieces in Ireland and the USA.

Daithi’s Funeral Mass took place in English Martyrs Roman Catholic Church followed by cremation in Hither Green Crematorium, Lewisham, London.

His ashes will be buried in his parents’ plot at Dromin Graveyard, Co Limerick.