The smiling photograph of 14 1/2year-old Ben Smyth sat on top of the coffin placed in front of the altar in the Sacred Heart Church in Killinarden yesterday.
On either side of the teenager's casket sat his still disbelieving family, his parents Peter and Fiona, his siblings Simon, David, Rachel and Leslie. They were surrounded by relatives, friends, neighbours and members of the wider community who spilled out into the churchyard.
Everyone was in shock, the parish priest, Father Padraig O'Sullivan, told the congregation. In the past few days they had been living in a kind of haze, he said, "wishing things were different, and hoping it was not really true". There was terrible pain and sorrow in the community, he said.
Ben died in hospital on Monday after being stabbed in the head with a screwdriver the previous Wednesday night.
His brother, David (16), was treated in hospital and released. Their father, Peter, is a well-known anti-drugs activist in the Tallaght area.
On the evening of the attack both boys had been sitting on the front wall of their home at Cushlawn Park in west Tallaght.
A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions by gardai. Beside Ben's coffin was a floral wreath in the letters KAAD, Killinarden Action Against Drugs.
"There are lots of questions to which we do not have answers, and all we can do is to trust and be there for one another," Father O'Sullivan said.
"Despite the tragedy and sorrow of Ben's death, within his family and this community there are enormous signs of hope. Last night when I called to his parents and we spoke about the funeral Mass they said `We will celebrate his life and not just his death'."
Ben's gift to the community, he said, was the sense of unity which had been created.
Ben's father had told Father O'Sullivan that people had "come out of the woodwork to help as they always do". He also said that his son's organs had been donated, giving life to others.
Mr Cecil Johnson, a friend of the family and community activist, gave a reading, and a second was by Ms Yvonne Smyth, a relative.
The parish folk group and the choir of the Killinarden Community School, where Ben was a pupil, sang during the Mass.
The Mass was attended by Ben's year head, Mr Joe Sweeney, his tutor, Mrs Fiona Richardson, his principal, Mr Aidan Savage, and a large number of school friends. The Mass was concelebrated by Father James Norman, chaplain at the community school, Father David Nixon, and Father Liam O'Brien, who runs a drug programme in the parish.
At the removal on Thursday evening Father Norman had emphasised the need for community support for parents bringing up children.
"There is so much emphasis on families bringing young people into adulthood. But they need the support of the health services, politicians, education system and the Garda. When a young person gets involved in drugs, or any other problem, they need to be able to turn somewhere for help. In the school we do our best. It is a pity all the other institutes in society do not do that."
He said that a high number of young people had died in the parish. "You wonder who's next? You wonder what can be done next to prevent more deaths? We need a real commitment, not just words, we need support for parents whose kids are on drugs. There is fantastic community support here and at times like this it is ourselves we turn to."