THE Church of the Ascension at Gurranebraher, Co Cork, was crowded yesterday for the funeral Mass of Christopher O'Flynn (11), who died on Saturday night when the stolen car in which he was a passenger hit a factory wall.
Ms Marion Murray, addressing the congregation, expressed the sympathy of the entire community for the dead boy's family. To his mother, Ms Ronnie O'Flynn, she said: "To us you are a loving and caring mother and a good friend. We ask God to give you the strength to carry you. You and Christopher are in our thoughts and we are there to support you."
The parish priest of Gurranebraher, Father Jack Twomey, said everybody was stunned by the tragic event. "For the parents, family and friends, these events must seem like a nightmare," one they hope to awake from.
"We must believe that the Lord is with us all and that he was with Christopher last Saturday, and that now Christopher is with the Lord." The boy was now in "the Kingdom to which the little ones "have immediate access they do not need a passport, they walk right in and they begin to play before the face of God," he said.
Christopher's mother, his sister Gillian (16), and brother James (6), sobbed through the Mass. Christopher's classmates from Church field primary school attended the Mass and formed a guard of honour afterwards at Kilcully Cemetery.
A statement from the Community Association in Gurranebraher called on Cork Corporation to narrow Kilmore Road in the area known as the "circuit of death" because of the number of so called joyriding incidents there.