Murdered teenager, Melanie McCarthy McNamara’s death is inexplicable to those who loved her, a priest said today at her funeral mass in London in the church where she had received her First Communion, which was attended by several hundred people.
In a sermon, Fr Peter Harries OP of St Dominic’s Priory, Southampton Row in North London said the death of a loved one at any time was hard to bear, but the circumstances of Melanie’s death - shot dead in the back of a car in Tallaght in Dublin - made it especially difficult for her loved ones to cope with.
Hundreds of people gathered at the Kentish Town church shortly after 9am for the funeral mass of the teenager, who had been ready to announce that she was going to marry her boyfriend Christopher Moran, one of those all dressed in identical pink shirts who later carried her coffin down the aisle, while a friend sang In the Arms of an Angel.
Two men have been arrested in relation to her murder and are still being held at Tallaght Garda station under anti-gangland crime legislation.
The death of the teenager’s is being blamed on a feud amongst drugs criminals, though some members of the McCarthy family displayed their anger with some photographers present, saying that newspapers ‘had told lies’.
Ms McCarthy had lived near the church in Queen’s Crescent for most of her life. Some former school-friends were amongst those who attended today’s funeral mass.
A small contingent of police helped with traffic issues around the church, particularly when the flower-laden hearse, followed by a line of Daimlers, left for the graveyard.
A small open-backed truck travelled immediately behind the hearse holding giant bouquets, including one that declared ‘Our Barbie Doll’.
She had been in the back-seat of a car in Tallaght on February 7th with her boyfriend, Christopher and two others, one of whom was believed to have been the intended target when the shooting happened.