DOVER, N.H. (AP) – Mourners said farewell to Irish singer and storyteller Tommy Makem – whose signature songs have become standard repertoire for folk singers around the world – with a final round of applause Thursday as pallbearers led his coffin out of church.

The two-hour funeral Mass celebrating his life began with the traditional Irish song “Minstrel Boy” and ended with Makem’s old friend and musical partner Liam Clancy singing “The Bard of Armagh.”

Speakers recalled Makem, known as the modern-day “Bard of Armagh,” for his brilliance as a performer, his rich baritone voice and his humility. Even with his success, he remained a modest family man who would take his evening stroll and regularly attend St. Mary Church, said the Rev. Fritz J. Cerullo.

“He knew who he was and, more importantly, where he came from,” Cerullo said. “Tommy was the salt of the earth.”

Makem, 74, died Aug. 1 after a long bout with lung cancer. He emigrated from County Armagh in the late 1950s and achieved American and worldwide stardom by spinning tales of his native land.

The aspiring actor and son of singer Sarah Makem embraced the music business full-time in the 1960s, teaming up with the Clancy Brothers. He went solo in 1969 and continued to delight audiences until earlier this year when the cancer became too much.

He is perhaps best known for “Four Green Fields,” a song about a woman whose sons died trying to prevent strangers from taking her land, which he wrote in 1967. Other songs included “Gentle Annie” and “Red Is the Rose.”

Eugene Byrne, a friend who has sung with Makem, offered a salute from musical artists and poets.

“He was the music,” Byrne told the church audience of about 1,100. “He was the story. He was the words. He was the song. The singer has passed, but the song will live forever.”

The Rev. Bartley MacPhaidin recalled emerging from his religious studies in Rome in 1965 and being captivated by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. “They were all the rage and what a blessed rage it was to our ears,” he said.

Mourners first showed up at the church nearly two hours before the Mass. Those in line for the doors to open often spoke of Makem as a neighbor first and an international celebrity second.

“I’ve never needed a ticket to go to a funeral before,” said Tim Decker, outside the church. Tickets were required for pews closest to the altar. “That speaks to the man and the citizen he was.”

Besides ceremonial bread and wine presented at the Christian altar, family and friends added gifts that symbolized Makem as an artist and a member of his adopted city of Dover. There was an American flag, an Irish flag, a banjo, Irish sweaters, a tin whistle and a white Dover fire helmet that was placed on the altar as a “thank you” for Makem’s charitable support.

Former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, a longtime family friend, presented the bread, while Gov. John Lynch carried doctoral degrees Makem received. Makem sang at both of their inaugurations.

Makem relative Tommy Hardiman of Dover recalled Makem as a great friend and a family man dedicated to his late wife, Mary, and to his children and grandchildren. Three of the four Makem children perform traditional Irish songs as The Makem Brothers.

Hardiman reminded everyone that while Makem is known as “The Godfather of Irish Music,” his family valued him as “The Godfather.”

“You were all given a sense of love and compassion,” he said to Makem’s children, Katie, Shane, Conor and Rory Makem in the front pew. “It is now your turn to pass that along.”

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