There was a huge turn-out of public representatives and dignatories from Church and State at the funeral today of the Co Cavan man who was attached to the UN mission in Haiti and tragically lost his life in the recent earthquake.
President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Brian Cowen were both officially represented at the funeral of UN Aid worker Andrew Greene (44) who died when the UN building in Port-au-Prince collapsed. The Minister for Agriculture Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith was also present.
A citizen of both Ireland and the US, Mr Grene was special assistant to the head of the UN stabilisation mission in Haiti.
The father-of-three was attending a meeting in the UN headquarters building in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake struck on January 12th last.
Three days later his body was recovered along with those of at least seventy other UN workers.
Mr Grene’s remains were flown back to Ireland yesterday and taken to his family home in Derrypark near Belturbet in Co Cavan.
Hundreds of people from all over Co Cavan and the neighbouring counties, including representatives from a number of charities and aid relief groups based in the north east travelled to express their sympathy with the victim’s wider family circle in Cavan.
A number of senior politicians, and clergy, as well as gardaí and representatives from the Defence Forces were also present to offer their condolences.
Tributes were also paid to the UN aid worker by a number of those in attendance at the funeral service in the packed Annagh Parish Church at Belturbet this afternoon.
Prayers were recited for the other Haiti earthquake victims and their grieving relatives caught in the catastrophe.
The Co Cavan man’s remains were interred immediately after the poignant funeral service.
His family has asked for donations to the Andrew Grene Foundation, a charity dedicated to educating Haitian children.
It is now believed more than 200,000 people were killed in the Haiti disaster, with tens of thousands of bodies still trapped under the rubble of the ruined city and surrounding areas.