Meg Walsh, the 35-year-old mother of one whose badly-decomposed body, was recovered from the River Suir in Waterford city last Sunday afternoon after a two-week search, finally came to an end last night in her native county.
The church of St Nicholas in the small Cork village of Killavulla was filled to overflowing when the hearse, carrying a mass of floral tributes, the largest with "MUM" picked out in flowers, arrived at 8.10pm.
The journey had begun on Monday at Waterford Regional Hospital.
Yesterday evening at 7pm, family, friends and work colleagues from Meadow Court Homes, many of whom were among the 400 volunteers who helped search for her body, gathered at the hospital mortuary in Fermoy.
The cortege then made its way via Ms Walsh's birthplace, to Killavulla, where it arrived in darkness, to a waiting crowd and a heavy Garda presence.
Among the chief mourners were her husband, John O'Brien, her 17-year-old daughter, Sasha Keating, Ms Walsh's parents Maurice and Nuala Walsh, and her only sibling, James Walsh.
Fr Joe O'Keeffe, with Fr Dan Gould and Fr Dan McCarthy, led the congregation in a short service, including a decade of the Rosary for "Sasha and James and all who are bereaved by Meg's death". There was no reference to the manner of Ms Walsh's death.
The funeral Mass will be held at noon today, when the congregation will be addressed by James Walsh.
Along with Ms Keating and Jackie O'Brien and Theresa O'Brien, both sisters-in-law, he will also bring up the Offertory gifts.