Two men who had been missing for a month before being discovered dead on a lake island in Co Cavan were described as inseparable friends at their joint funeral Mass this morning.
Gardaí had carried out extensive searches for Anthony Keegan (33) and Eoin O'Connor (32) last month after they failed to return home from a trip to the county in late April.
At their funeral today, Mr Keegan’s sister Margaret said he would be dearly missed by his friends and family and explained how close the men had been before their deaths.
“Where do I start about [their] relationship? [Anthony] would text me and tell me he was with his other half, meaning Eoin. They were inseparable; he would say he was his brother from a different mother,” she told the packed service at the St Luke the Evangelist Church in Kilmore West, Dublin.
“Thank you Anthony for being my best friend; a brother, uncle, brother-in-law. We will be lost without you. I just wish we had more time.”
Mr O’Connor’s brother Ruairi told the congregation he had been the “rock” of their family.
“He had two beautiful kids that we are going to look after; we are going to love for the rest of our days, to make sure that they are going to be OK,” he said.
About 1,000 people attended the service with more outside, where speakers were set up.
The Mass was said by parish priest Fr Patrick Littleton, who remarked on the traumatic reality of violence visiting a community.
He told those in attendance that the date of April 22nd, when the men had disappeared, would be forever remembered for a “journey that ended in tragedy”.
“And the people who caused the pain...was there any thought about the broken-hearted children and parents?” he asked.
The bodies of Mr Keegan and Mr O’Connor were discovered last week and gardaí are continuing with the investigation into their murders.
