Eugenie McGee had set out on an expedition of a lifetime and nobody could have known it would end in such sadness and tragedy, mourners at her funeral in Co Donegal were told yesterday.
Several hundred mourners filled St Agatha's Church at Clar, just outside Donegal town, for the funeral of the young woman who died in Bolivia, along with sisters Niamh and Anne Marie O'Loughlin from Ballyhaunis.
A message from the President, Mrs McAleese, was read to the congregation. She said she had learned of the death of the three young women with great sadness.
The Bishop of Raphoe, Dr Philip Boyce, who presided at the funeral Mass, said "moments of deep loss" bring people together and he was there to be with the family in their time of grief.
The chief celebrant, Father William Peoples, expressed sympathy to both the McGee and O'Loughlin families. He said just over two years ago Eugenie's mother Betty had had to deal with the death of her husband Eugene, who died in a road accident.
Among the mourners were Eugenie's former classmates from the Abbey Vocational School in Donegal town and the University of Limerick. Gifts representing her academic talents and achievements were brought to the altar and a bunch of daffodils from the family garden was presented as a symbol of "the beauty, happiness, and joy she brought into the hearts and minds of those around her", Father Peoples said.
Eugenie was the eldest of four children. Her brothers, Niall and Owen, and her sister Elizabeth said prayers and readings.
Father Peoples said Eugenie was full of life and took the opportunity to travel. She must have experienced a sense of wonder on her visit to the Amazon rainforest. "Little did any of us know that it would all end in such sadness and tragedy, that at the age of 24 she would be taken from her mother and family."
Burial took place afterwards in the small hillside cemetery beside the church.