The father of a woman stabbed to death at her home has asked mourners to forgive his daughter's mother.
Jessica Prendergast (21), Old Commons Road, Blackpool, Cork city, was found with multiple stab wounds after her mother told gardaí she had stabbed her daughter to death.
Gardaí were called to Blue Cabs, Blackpool, when May Prendergast allegedly said she stabbed her daughter. She was covered in blood and was carrying Jessica's one-year-old son, Jamie Lee.
Mrs Prendergast was taken to Mercy Hospital where she has remained since the incident. She was not physically injured.
Gardaí are not seeking anyone else in connection with the incident.
Yesterday at the funeral Mass Jessica's father, Willie Prendergast, told mourners of his great love for his daughter.
"She was a child everyone would want - we all miss her desperately. She was a child who always had a smile - she loved her mother," said Mr Prendergast tearfully.
"Jessica forgave her mother - she became a mother herself and brought a child into the world."
Mr Prendergast then made an impassioned plea to the hundreds of mourners at Saint Oliver's Church, Ballyvolane, Cork.
"Jessica was the sort of person that would want people to forgive her mother - she was a special type of child.
"We just have to look around here and see the friends she made.
"She is an angel - if ye only knew what Jessica did only an angel could do it," Mr Prendergast added.
Jessica's coffin was greeted in the church by the strains of David Gray's Sail Away.
Shortly after the start of the Mass, Jamie Lee, Jessica's son, was carried forward in the arms of a male relative to light a candle for his dead mother.
Fr John O'Donovan, parish priest of Blackpool, paid a warm tribute to the young woman.
"When a young person dies we say what a shame she died before her time - before fulfilling her potential. It is unfair to say this about Jessica. It is not how God and the scriptures would see it.
"Since last Saturday I have been thinking about what people said about Jess. The words were sad at her going, but there was a deep joy for knowing her," he said.
"She had a great smile and she had her own little ways. She was lovely, but most important of all she was loveable. She was loveable in the way she could wrap her father around her finger and how she could reach out to her mother.
"She made a place brighter and happier," he concluded.
A number of wreaths were placed in the hearse, including some stencilled with tributes such as "Mother" and "Jess".
The cortege drove the short distance to Rathcooney cemetery, where Jessica Prendergast was laid to rest.