HUNDREDS OF mourners attended the funeral Mass in Limerick yesterday of US army private Edward Byrnes, who died in an accident in Alaska earlier this month.
An American flag and a Tricolour were draped over Pte Byrnes’s coffin at the Mass. US army colleagues presented his widowed mother Ann with a number of awards, including a US army achievement medal and a combat medal for “exemplary behaviour in active federal military service”.
Mourners at St Brigid’s church included his mother and brother, John, his family, and US servicemen who were stationed with him in Anchorage, Alaska.
Limerick-born Pte Byrnes (36) was a first-class private with the engineer battalion in Iraq. He died on July 11th in Anchorage after falling from a 40ft bridge. It is thought he may have underestimated the height of the drop when he tried to retrieve his fallen hat.
Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea was at his funeral along with members of the Defence Forces. “My deepest sympathies go out to the Byrnes family who are highly respected in this community. This was a terrible tragedy. To have survived two tours of duty in Iraq and be killed in such a freak accident is appalling. Edward Byrnes’s tragic death has cast a gloom over the entire community,” Mr O’Dea said.
In an emotional address to the congregation, first-class Sgt Guy Hinkle told mourners that the US army had fond memories of Pte Byrnes, who he described as a “very hard worker”.
“Sometimes we had to tell him he was working too hard, he was making the others look bad,” he joked. “Pte Byrnes will be truly missed by his fellow soldiers. He was a great solider.”
Pte Byrnes’s cousin Ken McNamara described him as a man with great conviction and strong character and recalled how he had written to him from Iraq.
“He was a man of deep intelligence and a strong belief in what was right and wrong. He was a man of strong character and I knew his mother and brother were always very proud of that,” Mr McNamara said.
In his homily, Fr Noel Kirwan paid tribute to a man who loved to travel and had found “a home away from home” with the US army.
Pte Byrnes was buried at Mount St Oliver Cemetery beside his father Jack, who died in 2002.