Tunisia victim Lorna Carty's 'goodness and kindness will always be remembered'
A loving mother-of-two killed in the Tunisia beach massacre will be remembered for her goodness and kindness, her funeral Mass heard today.
Thousands packed into and around the Church of the Assumption in close-knit Robinstown, Co Meath, to bid a final farewell to Lorna Carty.
She was the third Irish victim of the shootings to be laid to rest.
Mourners were led by her husband Declan, a dairy farmer, her son Simon, 21, and daughter Hazel, 18.
Her parents Johnny and Amy Harlin were comforted by her sister Ruth and brothers Jim, Brian and Ronan.
Neighbours in the tiny village carried their furniture into the church grounds so some of the hundreds of mourners who could not get inside had somewhere to sit.
A speaker was set up to relay the service to the overspill, and farmers from all around opened up their fields for car parking.
As the hearse carrying her coffin arrived for the requiem Mass, star footballers from the Meath Senior Gaelic football team, where her son Simon is on the squad, and her local club, Dunderry, formed a lengthy guard of honour, flanking the cortege.
Parish priest Fr Noel Horneck told the mourners there were no words to ease the suffering of her family.
“Her goodness and kindness will always be remembered and appreciated and spoken of,” he said.
“But our mourning as friends, neighbours, colleagues, club and parish is nothing compared to your loss.”
Fr Horneck said Ms Carty was a loving and devoted mother, daughter and sister.
“I have no words of human comfort to ease your loss,” he told her family.
“But, we as neighbours, as a community, as friends in shock, we can only be there with you in your loss, walk with you, accompany you in so far as we can. Because the depth of loss is yours and yours alone.
“We can only be there with you and for you during those times you need some companionship, someone just to be there for you.
“All of us will be there with you and for you Declan, Simon, Hazel, parents and family.”
A nurse in a GP surgery in nearby Navan, she gave much of her time to the local GAA club, where she also acted as a club nurse, the service was told.
President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Enda Kenny were represented at the funeral by their aides de camp.
Bishop Patricia Storey, Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath and Kildare, was in attendance, as was Sheikh Umar Al Quadri of the Coolmine Islamic centre.
Monsignor Sean Heaney represented the Bishop of Meath.
Ms Carty, in her 50s, had taken her husband on holiday to Sousse to help him recover from heart surgery.
She is believed to have gone to the beach by herself for some last-minute sunbathing before they were due to take a return flight home when the gunman went on the rampage.
Yesterday, two other Irish victims, Larry and Martina Hayes, a couple in their 50s, were laid to rest in Athlone.
Their daughter and only child Sinead spent her birthday burying her parents.
