Donal Walsh praised for courage and wisdom in face of illness

Thousands of mourners have gathered in Tralee to pay their last respects to teenager Donal Walsh who died from cancer at the weekend.

Mourners at the church of St John The Baptist heard Donal's mother Elma urge world leaders at the G8 summit in Fermanagh later this summer to increase funding for cancer research which she described as the biggest killer of young people in Ireland today.

Requiem mass celebrant Fr Francis Nolan in his homily paid tribute to Donal (16) for his courage in fighting his disease, for his wisdom in urging young people contemplating suicide to value life.

Amongst the many mourners were several high profile rugby players from Donal's beloved Munster including Donncha O'Callaghan, Ronan O'Gara, Simon Zebo and Danny Barnes from Donal's home town of Tralee.

Munster’s second row Paul O’Connell, who has spoken movingly of his friendship with Donal, was unable to attend due to his involvement with the British and Irish lions but Irish and Leinster flanker Shane Jennings took his place in the offertory procession when he brought up Donal’s Munster jersey, his Kerins O’Rahilly GAA football jersey and his cycling jersey.

Kerry GAA star Paul Gavin also participated in the offertory precession, bringing up a pen and paper which celebrated Donal’s love of writing.

Leading the mourners were his parent Fionnbar, mother Elma, older sister Jema and his uncle Brian while his uncle Fr Michael Walsh was among the priests who concelebrated mass with Fr Nolan.

Thousands of mourners lined the streets of Tralee as his funeral cortege made its way to Rath cemetery on the Killarney road where Donal was laid to rest with his grandparents.