Hundreds gather to mourn loss of model’s life
They stood on ladders and used long-distance lenses under the trees at the side of the church while reporters joined those unable to gain entry to the packed building to watch the service relayed on two small screens.
There was a bigger screen inside the church and it was used to show a slideshow of the model’s life put together by her younger sister, Jill.
Hundreds of mourners watched as the 24-year-old model’s life flashed by in pictures and they were mostly happy ones spent with her family and friends.
Among the well-known figures who attended the service at St Patrick’s Church in Enniskerry, was singer Chris de Burgh who arrived with his daughter, former Miss World, Rosanna Davison.
Also there was TG4 presenter Daithí O’Shea, Micheál Healy Rea, Olympian swimmer, Michelle de Bruin, and Fair City actor Alan O’Neill who all appeared with Katy on RTÉ’s recently screened Celebrities go Wild.
Other famous faces were Katy’s friend and former Miss Ireland Andrea Roche, journalist Brendan O’Connor and Claudine Palmer, girlfriend of Irish footballer, Robbie Keane. The model’s former fiancé, Marcus Sweeney also attended.
Katy died in hospital on Thursday, days after collapsing at a friend’s house in Co Meath. There are unconfirmed reports that medical tests revealed she had taken cocaine and that the postmortem revealed she had suffered brain damage.
In her tribute her mother Janet thanked everyone for helping them celebrate her daughter’s life. “Life with Katy was about loving it, embracing it” she said.
“From baby to woman, this daughter of mine remains the child. Wanting and receiving, crying and loving, giving and taking, solving problems and causing them and always with an openness of heart and freedom of spirit,” she said.
“It was that love of life, that openness of heart, that childlike naturalness that intoxicated me. I could forgive Katy anything and she was always so ready to forgive me too.”
And, she said, in a week or two something else will hit the news and many would forget “her Katykins”.
But she would not forget her and neither would anyone in her family. Mothers and daughters especially had a heartfelt and undying trust.
“We know we are there for each other for all our lives, come what may and, do you know, that is enough for me.”
She said, her daughter’s involvement with Goal helped her learn the difference she could make to those in need. After her visit to see the street children of Calcutta, Katy wrote that it was not how much people gave but how much love people put into giving that mattered.
“To me Katy was an angel. Every mother’s daughter is an angel. Thank God I have one other angel left by my side,” she said.
