AS DARREN Sutherland’s body lay in repose at the funeral home in Navan, Co Meath, a photograph perched on his coffin showed a garlanded and beaming boxer with the bronze Olympic medal he won in Beijing just 13 months ago.
Under the coffin, which was half-opened, there was a flower display with a pair of boxing gloves and a funeral wreath which simply said “brother”.
Hundreds of local people, friends and family filed past the coffin as it reposed in Fitzsimons Funeral Home.
When the time came for his body to be removed to St Mary’s Church, his relatives stayed behind and everybody else left.
Then his parents, Tony and Linda and sisters Nicole and Shaneika, said their last goodbyes to him.
His father led the mourners on the short distance from the funeral home to the church.
The hearse contained more reminders of his brilliant career – a wreath in the shape of a horseshoe with a pair of tricolour boxing gloves and another on the same theme and then a photograph of Sutherland and his nickname “The Dazzler”.
Local curate Fr Declan Hurley said there were no words that could express anything of the pain that the Sutherland family were experiencing, but he hoped that the presence of the congregation would bring them some consolation.
Fr Mark English from St Peter’s College in Dunboyne, where Sutherland did his Leaving Certificate at the age of 20, led the congregation in a decade of the Rosary.
The former Irish boxer’s funeral Mass takes place at 11am this morning with burial afterwards to St Finian’s Cemetery.
His friend Nikki Kavanagh has been asked to perform by Mr Sutherland’s family.
She will sing all the music at the service including a special song chosen by Darren’s mother. Mr Sutherland took his own life last week in his apartment in Bromley, south London. His death shocked the nation and the boxing world in particular.
Among those who turned out last night for the removal was FAI chief executive John Delaney and former athletics world champion Eamonn Coghlan.
Coghlan knew Sutherland through his son John Coghlan who also had a sporting scholarship to DCU.
Coghlan described Sutherland as a “delightful, bubbly outgoing character who was always positive”.
He said his outgoing attitude may have been a “cover for what goes on in one’s head” and sportsmen frequently have to confront big highs and lows.
“When you are training and competing and the public are wishing you well, you’re on a high, but they don’t see the loss of form or the injuries or the loneliness of it all,” he said.
Tony Sutherland said last week he would speak about his son, but only after the funeral had taken place.