"SHE was a very gentle lady and will be remembered for her gentleness rather than the violent way she met her death."
Those were the words of Father Seamus Ryan, PP, at yesterday's removal service in St Matthew's Church, Ballyfermot, for Ms Marilyn Ryan, who was found murdered in Blanchardstown on Sunday.
Hundreds of friends, neighbours and work colleagues from the Department of the Environment attended the service.
Ms Ryan, a 41-year-old single woman, is believed to have been waylaid and murdered as she returned home to Blanchardstown in the early hours of Friday, December 22nd. Her body was found in wasteland in the Tolka Valley, between Blanchardstown and the main Navan Road.
Father Ryan said that instead of thinking of her violent death, we should think of the great happiness she had brought to her family and friends. She had lived nearly all her life in the parish of Ballyfermot, where she was well-known and popular. She was a very caring woman.
Even when she was going to school she used to work during her summer holidays in St Mary's Hospital in the Phoenix Park. She later joined the civil service and was involved in many activities.
She also loved children and music. "These are the things about her that we must remember today and not the tragic way in which she met her death.
"The big attendance here on this windy, wet night is an indication of her popularity," he said.
Father Ryan was assisted by Father John Fitzpatrick, PP, Corduff, Blanchardstown, where Ms Ryan had lived before her death.
The principal mourners were her parents, Stephen and Christine, her brother Stephen and sister Rosaleen.