"The Garden of Gethsemane was Christ's own Tolka Valley," the parish priest of Ballyfermot Upper, Father Seamus Ryan, told mourners at the funeral Mass for Ms Marilyn Rynn, whose murdered body was found in the Valley in Blanchardstown on Sunday.
He asked Ms Rynn's family and friends, as the dark clouds of sorrow surrounded them, to remember what Christ had said at the Last Supper, before he left for Gethsemane and death. He said "Trust in God still and trust in me.
He said Christ had chosen to live "in solidarity with the helpless victims of our society". Marilyn Rynn "a popular, hardworking, gentle woman, generous with her time" was "an innocent victim of violence and the harsh reality of evil which is sadly too much in evidence in our country and our city in these times
"We can only try to seek that trust in God which is at the heart of all religion," Father Ryan told the packed congregation.
Hundreds of people had crowded into St Matthew's Church in Ballyfermot, and scores more waited outside. The principal mourners were Ms Rynn's 80 year old father, Mr Stephen Rynn, her mother, Christine (76), her brother, Stephen, and her sister, Rosaleen.
The Taoiseach was represented by his aide de camp, Capt Maurice McQuillan. Also present were the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, in whose Department Ms Rynn worked as a senior executive officer the Minister of State in that department, Ms Liz McManus the Minister of State, Mr Austin Currie, a TD for Dublin West the local Fianna Fail TD, Mrs Liam Lawlor and Mr Liam Connellan, chairman of the National Roads Authority, with whom Ms Rynn had worked.
Also present were numerous friends and neighbours in Ballyfermot where Ms Rynn had grown up. There were large contingents from her former school, Caritas College, and her brother's Army unit, the 11th Field Engineers.
Much of the Mass was sung by the church choir, of which Ms Rynn's mother has been a member for over 20 years. Father Ryan paid tribute to Ms Rynn's work with the Girl Guides and her love of travel and music, particularly Irish music.
The dead woman's friends and relatives then placed commemorative items on her coffin. She was buried at Palmerstown cemetery.