EAMONN McDAID:YOUNG PEOPLE must live within life's rules and boundaries, otherwise their family and friends may have to bear them to the grave, the funeral of one of eight men to have died in Sunday's car crash heard yesterday.
Eamonn McDaid (22) lost his life along with six of his friends and the driver of a second car, Hugh Friel (66), on the Inishowen Peninsula on Sunday night.
Fr John Walsh, the parish priest of Buncrana, who spent much of Sunday night in Letterkenny hospital with the relatives of those who died, presided over the funeral service that took place in St Mary’s Church in Cockhill.
He made a direct appeal to Eamonn’s friends and contemporaries to preserve their own “fragile” lives.
“You are not indestructible at the age of 22. You are very fragile. All of us are. Life itself is fragile. We have to be careful and even wise if we are to reach adulthood and middle age and old age. There are no guarantees, but care and caution are mighty helps in the effort at holding on to life.
“I don’t mean to patronise you. When I was your age I too felt indestructible. But none of us is. That’s a plain fact of life. So please, please, please live life on its terms, within its rules and boundaries; otherwise life will be cruel and merciless towards you and towards your family and friends who will have to bear you to the grave.”
He expressed his condolences to the chief mourners, Eamonn’s father Séamus, his mother Martha and his four brothers Martin, Seán, Liam and James, his girlfriend Yvonne and his grandmother Rose.
He said people had turned out in “overflowing numbers” to offer them comfort, some travelling from America and the UK to attend the ceremony.
“If numbers alone could heal, then the massive outpouring of love and concern and support for Eamonn’s family during the past few days, and again this afternoon, would have consoled them in their grief and wiped away their tears.”
Fr Walsh said Eamonn would be remembered as a loving son and affectionate brother and a good mechanic.
“A bubbly character, wild for craic, he was the life and soul of every party. He loved singing well on into the morning. His laugh and smile were infectious . . . He was loyal to his friends and his friends were loyal to him,” he said.
The gifts brought to the altar included a photograph of Eamonn, an Illies Celtic football jersey and a spanner representing his work as a mechanic, although he also worked a carpenter.
Outside a guard of honour was formed, for the second day in a row, by members of Illies Celtic football club. The Illies jersey brought to the altar was emblazoned with the number 11. PJ McLaughlin, a striker with the team, was buried in the neighbouring parish of Fahan on Wednesday.
Prayers of the faithful were dedicated to all those who lost their lives on Sunday as well as driver Shaun Kelly who remains in a serious condition in hospital.
A message of sympathy from the parents of five young people in Monaghan who lost their lives in a car crash four years ago was expressed to Eamonn’s family by Fr Walsh.
The funeral of Damien McLaughlin also took place in the same church outside Buncrana yesterday afternoon, however the media were requested not to attend the funeral by the family.
The 21-year-old telephoned his girlfriend on Sunday night before he left Clonmany to cancel a lift he had arranged with her earlier, instead choosing to take a lift with his friends. Damien, who was from Umricam, Buncrana, worked as a carpenter.