Irish soldier killed in Liberia buried with full honours

THE body of the Irish solider killed while on UN peacekeeping duties in Liberia last month was buried with full military honours in Dublin yesterday.

More than 1,000 mourners including a large number of members of the Defence Forces attended the funeral Mass for Sergeant Derek Mooney, 33, at St John the Baptist Church in Blackrock, Co Dublin.

Sgt Mooney, a member of the elite Army Ranger wing, had only been in Liberia a week when he was killed in a road traffic accident while travelling in convoy about 40 miles south-east of the capital, Monrovia, last Thursday. An investigation is underway into the circumstances of how Sgt Mooney’s jeep left the road.