The retired heart surgeon Maurice Neligan paid tribute to his murdered daughter at her funeral yesterday.
In an emotional address to a packed congregation at the Church of the Assumption in Booterstown, Co Dublin, Mr Neligan said his "beloved Sara" had been baptised there and had gone to school next door.
"In normal circumstances we could possibly hope that she would be married here, too," he said.
Sara (26), a nurse at the Mater hospital in Dublin, was stabbed to death at her home in the Winter Gardens complex in the city centre last week.
Mr Neligan described his daughter as a "lovely girl" and said he had thought about the times when his wife, Patricia, had corralled the children into saying their night prayers.
"They would recite the prayer which ends: 'If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.'
"The Lord has taken Sara, but we know we will see her again in a sunnier place," he said, his voice breaking down several times during a short address.
The church was full to overflowing a half an hour before yesterday's funeral service.
Mr Neligan, a co-founder of the Blackrock Clinic, said he was proud of his wife and children. Sara is survived by three brothers, Maurice, John, and David, and three sisters, Kate, Lisa and Lucy.
He thanked the mourners who had come from all parts of Ireland and particularly those who had come from Killorglin in Co Kerry, a place with which he had strong connections.
Booterstown parish priest Monsignor Seamus Conway said the "bonds of love and affection which delighted her friends and others cannot be broken".
He praised Sara for her dedicated service as a nurse and the "kindness and care" she brought to the role and also the "special love and regard" she had for children.
The Taoiseach was represented by his aide-de-camp Comdt Michael Murray and among the mourners were the Kerry-born broadcaster Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh.
A guard of honour was formed by Sara's fellow nurses at the Mater hospital.
