THE WATERFORD man who drowned last month after he slipped into the River Tiber in Rome was buried in Waterford yesterday on the weekend he had planned to marry his fiancée.
Vincent Wall (27) fell into the River Tiber in the early hours of December 13th.
He had been in the Italy to attend the wedding of his friends.
The river was at its highest level for 40 years, following days of heavy rain.
Mr Wall, a dairy farmer from Colligan, a rural townland five miles outside Dungarvan, Co Waterford, was due to marry Armagh native Cathy Braham on January 2nd.
The couple had planned to get married at Cloghogue in Newry, Co Down.
Parish priest Fr Michael Kennedy said yesterday that Mr Wall “was a lovely young lad and I was to have married them [Cathy and Vincent] in Newry.
“It is a close community here. It is old-style great community and people have been of such help to the family.”
Rescue teams recovered Mr Wall’s body on Christmas Eve at the Isola Tiverina. The island, located in the middle of the Tiber, was about a mile downstream from where he disappeared.
At yesterday’s funeral Mass, mourners were asked to donate to the Italian emergency services in lieu of flowers.
Mr Wall is survived by his parents, Michael and Marianne, his fiancée, Cathy, and his sisters Gillian, Olivia and Avril.
The funeral yesterday was attended by hundreds of local people including friends of the Wall family from Colligan Rockies GAA Club.
Mr Wall was buried in the cemetery which adjoins Colligan church following noon Mass.