Glowing tributes to 'proud' Irish soldier

Lance Cpl Ian Malone was a "manly" soldier of faith who had loved every minute of his service in the British army, mourners were told yesterday.

Lance Cpl Malone, who was killed in combat in Iraq earlier this month, was buried yesterday in Dublin in a ceremony with a low-key yet unprecedented involvement by British soldiers on Irish soil.

Uniformed colleagues from the Irish Guards bore his coffin to the grave as a regimental piper played a lament and a bugler sounded The Last Post. Several dozen army colleagues, some of them recently returned from Iraq, attended the funeral, as did the head of the regiment, the Duke of Abercorn. However, no flag covered the coffin and no military emblems were displayed.

Hundreds of neighbours and friends from Ballyfermot turned out to pay their respects to the 28-year-old Dubliner, as did former colleagues from his days in the FCA.

Among the mourners in the Church of the Assumption were former servicemen in the British and Irish armies, as well as representatives of the Garda Síochána, the Irish Defence Forces and the Royal British Legion. Among the politicians who attended were Fine Gael TDs Mr Gay Mitchell and Mr Billy Timmons, and local councillors Mr Michael Conaghan, (Lab), and Vincent Jackson, (Ind).

The Government and the President were not officially represented at the funeral, which was private. Fianna Fáil TD Mr Charlie O'Connor attended the removal on Wednesday on behalf of his parliamentary party.

Father David Lumsden told mourners that Lance Cpl Malone was "obviously content" in the British army and "loved every minute" of his service.

Father Lumsden, who knew the soldier as school chaplain of the local St John's College, described him as a "fabulous, fabulous, manly young man" who was a thinker and a philosopher.

"He pickled me with questions. Everything I said was challenged, but it was the kind of challenge that came from a believer seeking more information."

Father Andrew Lloyd, the senior Catholic chaplain in the Guards division in London, expressed his condolences to the soldier's parents, May and Joe Malone, and his four brothers and sisters. He said the soldier had stayed faithful to his Irish roots and had given his life to make Iraq a better place.

Lance Cpl Malone's younger brother, Edward, read from the Book of Wisdom and his sister Carol read from St Paul's Letter to the Romans.

The celebrant, local parish priest Father Joe Kett, described Lance Cpl Malone as a "brave young Irishman" who was "so proud of being Irish".

After the funeral Mass, a lone piper from the Irish Guards led the coffin from the church. The cortege stopped outside the soldier's house in Ballyfermot before proceeding to Palmerstown Cemetery.