The grandmother of five-year-old Ryan O’Dwyer Hayes, who died on Easter Sunday morning in a suspected arson attack on a house in Cork, lit his baptismal candle at his funeral Mass today.
Ryan and his aunt Helena O’Dwyer (25) perished in a blaze in their grandparents home on Nutley Avenue in Mahon. His schoolbag, Nintendo and his uneaten Easter egg were laid beneath a picture of his smiling face at the North Cathedral.
The attack was described as a "senseless act of violence" during prayers of the faithful read by relatives of the O’Dwyer family.
Chief celebrant Fr Tom Walsh said an outrage had been committed against life and goodness.
"Someone acting as an angel of death brought death and destruction to the O’Dwyer home. It is not an isolated incident. Every day in our newspapers and on our tv screens we see the spiralling growth of crime," he said.
Fr Walsh gave thanks for Ryan’s short life and for the joy he brought his family during his few short years on earth.
"His death will help us understand that tears are wasted unless they prevent other tears," Fr Walsh said.
"We see the faces of his parents Paddy and Josephine, his grandparents, his cousins, the pain that cut their hearts in two and will remain with them for the rest of their lives."
Ryan’s mother Josephine wept as the small white coffin was shouldered from the altar by pallbearers.
Gardaí escorted the funeral cortege down Cathedral Street and across the city to St Michael’s Cemetery, where the child was laid to rest.
His aunt Helena O’Dwyer will be buried tomorrow in a neighbouring grave, following funeral Mass at Holy Cross Church in Mahon.