A priest told young people yesterday there was nothing glamorous about dying in a field.
Father Edward Kilpatrick, St Patrick's Church, Murlog, Co Donegal, was speaking at the funeral of Geraldine Chambers, aged 14, found dead in a field near her home last Monday.
The schoolgirl's body was found by her brother, Colin, lying beside her friend, Alicia McGowan, after both girls had failed to return home from a night out in the nearby village of Ballindrait. Morphine tablets and an empty vodka bottle were found lying on the ground beside the two girls, who were huddled together in the field about 400 yards from Geraldine's home.
Alicia, revived by paramedics, was in a stable condition in Letterkenny General Hospital yesterday.
The dead girl's parents, Mr John Kelly and Ms Cathy Chambers, her brothers, Colin (24) and Christopher (10), were the chief mourners among the hundreds who attended Requiem Mass in St Patrick's Church. As many of Geraldine's friends held each other and cried during the Mass, Father Kilpatrick urged young people to resist pressures to get involved in drugs.
"Nowhere is the pain of these days felt more sharply than in Geraldine's family, among her parents and brothers, grandmother and relatives. For a parent to experience the death of a child is as unexpected as it is an inversion of the natural order of events," he said.
"Parents this morning are apprehensive as their young offspring grieve for Geraldine. But you who are of her age group and older, you know that there is nothing glamorous about dying in a field in the early hours of a summer morning. Nor is there anything cool about standing by the side of a coffin of someone who is just 14."
The parish priest said teenage years should be the most carefree years of innocence and sheer enjoyment.
"Do not let those who would peddle dangerous substances rob you of your life and steal away your carefree days," Father Kilpatrick said. "The flowers you laid at the gate on the Cavancor Road will soon wither and fade. Do not let the memory of your young friend fade, too. Let it rather be an incentive to you to exercise good judgment when confronted with an all-pervasive alcoholic culture.
"At your next disco, spare a thought for your friend who should be with you and let that strengthen your resolve to resist peer pressure to get involved with or experiment with abusive substances.
"Be sensitive to your parents and know that always they care for you. Do not add to their natural and normal apprehensions about your growing years by staying out late or failing to let them know where you are," Father Kilpatrick said.
Geraldine's body was buried in the adjoining cemetery.