A family united in grief

AS a thousand footsteps halted behind him, John McAreavey tilted his head and kissed the coffin of his bride. He paused for a moment, not wishing to let go, then rubbed the wood panel as if saying goodbye.

Finally he relinquished his grip and fell into the arms of his wife Michaela’s heartbroken father Mickey Harte as they watched the remains of their special girl placed into the hearse and taken onward to St Malachy’s chapel.

Two weeks ago he was waiting for her inside the church as she made the same short journey from the Harte family home on the Glencull Road.

Today they went together. And behind them, not the chatter of excited wedding guests but the solemn hush made only by a sea of mourners.

Pupils from Glencull Primary School, where Michaela attended, emerged from class to form their own guard of honour. The cortege made its way slowly along the A5 carriageway, one of the North’s main arterial routes — closed to accommodate the funeral.

On one side of the huge crowd walked Mickey Harte’s Tyrone team, on the other players from his home club, Errigal Ciaran.

A marquee was set up outside the church to hold 400 extra mourners, two huge TVs for the thousands more standing outside, and even a row of portable toilets.

Michaela, 27, was a teacher, and pupils from St Patrick’s Academy in Dungannon where she taught stood in silence among the young couple’s friends and relatives.

John McAreavey’s uncle, Bishop John McAreavey, who married them on December 30, acknowledged that the younger generation would struggle to comprehend how the murder of one so seemingly pure could be part of God’s plan.

“One of the hardest things in life is finding there are things we cannot understand, no matter how hard we try,” he said.

For some it proved just too much and medics had to attend to a number who fainted.

Time and again the same theme recurred — her and John’s devotion to each other.

“They lived for one another, they enjoyed and supported one another in everything,” said Bishop McAreavey. Those hopes were extinguished forever in Mauritius a week ago.

As the distraught groom emerged from the church and his beloved was carried on to the adjoining cemetery, one of the first to embrace him was President Mary McAleese.

Proof that his wife’s death has not just broken his heart, but that of a whole country.