New York firefighters Greg Ruggiero and Peter Savarese joined a guard of honour which met Mark O'Shaughnessy's coffin as it left the church in Bray yesterday.
They travelled from the US when they heard about the deaths of Mark and his colleague, Brian Murray, in the fire in a disused factory in Bray, Co Wicklow, last Wednesday.
The US firefighters met Brian Murray and other Irish firefighters after they had fundraised in the wake of the September 11th attacks.
Losing a fellow firefighter was like "losing a brother, it's like losing a family member", Mr Savarese said on RTÉ radio yesterday.
President Mary McAleese and the Taoiseach were represented by their aides-de-camp.
Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy attended the funeral with a number of senior Garda colleagues. Wicklow's chief fire officer James Dunphy also attended as did Siptu president Jack O'Connor, the Minister with responsibility for the fire service, Tony Killeen, and Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore.
Many local politicians were also there, including Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche; deputy Labour Party leader Liz McManus; Fine Gael TDs Billy Timmins and Andrew Doyle, and Green Party Senator Deirdre de Burca.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/7e460536-4b39-4a5e-b74b-a115823c9e15.png)