Thousands pay their respects to brave Jonathan

THEY cut short a tour of America last week to help search for his body — and last night they accompanied him as he began his final journey.

Jonathan Herlihy’s best friends and team-mates from University College Cork’s soccer club walked, heads bowed, alongside a hearse last night as it carried his remains from Barry Brothers Funeral Home in Riverstown, near Glanmire in Cork the few hundred yards to St Joseph’s Church.

Jonathan, 22, drowned with businessman Peter O’Keeffe, 36, last Sunday week after they saved two swimmers struggling in the water off Owenahincha beach in West Cork.

Mr O’Keeffe’s body was recovered from the sea last Tuesday and he was laid to rest in Ovens last Friday. Jonathan’s body was recovered on Sunday morning.

The town of Glanmire came to a standstill last night as thousands of people turned out to pay their respects to the brave young man.

People stood from 6pm in a queue which at times stretched almost a mile around the car park outside the funeral and back out onto the main road.

They filed patiently into the funeral home for almost three hours.

Then just before 9pm, the coffin was carried from the funeral home by Jonathan’s father Liam, his brother Chris and his uncles.

His mother Eileen, his girlfriend, Sarah O’Flanagan, his grandparents, Frank and Mary, and Harry and Elma walked behind.

The hearse, flanked by 18 soccer team-mates wearing their red tracksuit tops, then made its way slowly in the darkness towards the church, with people walking behind.

The coffin was accepted into the church by Fr John O’Callaghan who will also celebrate requiem Mass at 11 o’clock this morning.

At the request of the Herlihy family, members of the soccer club will shoulder the coffin at different stages during today’s funeral.

President of UCC soccer club John MacCarthy said the response from the team since Jonathan was lost at sea had been fantastic.

“Their response, like the search effort in West Cork last week, has been inspiring to say the least,” he said.

Jonathan was a gifted student and sportsman. He played on the UCC soccer team in 2003, 04, 05 and 06. He was a member of the team that won three Collingwood Cup medals in a row, from 2003-2005.

He is said to have turned in his best performance in the Collingwood Cup final in the Mardyke in 2003 when he played at left back.

The following year, he played as a forward and won the Golden Boat as leading goalscorer. He won a Beamish Cup medal in 2003 and played on the Irish Universities soccer team that competed at the World University games in Turkey last August.

He played centre forward for Cork minor and U21 football teams and won several medals for Glanmire and Sarsfields GAA club.