Irish NZ quake victim laid to rest in home soil

AN Irish father-of-two killed in the New Zealand earthquake was yesterday remembered as a man of great compassion as he was laid to rest in his home soil.

Owen McKenna’s final wish was to be buried where he was born and bred in Truagh, a quiet townland in the gentle, rolling hills of north Co Monaghan.

With the small Church of the Sacred Heart in Carrickroe packed out, speakers were erected outside to allow mourners to hear the service.

The psychiatric nurse was crushed to death in his car during last month’s disaster in Christchurch.

As a boy in Truagh, he was known to everybody whether as a member of the scouts, the local marching band, the Gaelic football club, the drama society or the Irish dancing school.

While he had worked in London and Saudi Arabia for many years before moving to New Zealand, he returned home and came back to marry his wife Sarah in the same church 10 years ago.

Sarah and their two young children, Grace, six, and Tadhg, five, could not face the long journey back for the funeral, but watched on as it was broadcast live on the internet.

Their home in Christchurch was known as an open house for Irish expatriates.

Drawings of teddy bears by his daughter and son replaced the flag of his local Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club Truagh Gaels over the coffin as it was lowered into the ground in the church graveyard.

His four sisters and three brothers, Bernadette, Maria, Kieran, Enda, Angela, Brendan and Catherine were among the pall-bearers. Mr McKenna’s mother Theresa was helped to the graveside.

Schoolchildren formed a uniformed guard of honour along the cemetery pathway with members of the Truagh Gaels.

A slideshow of photos — of Mr McKenna’s wedding, christenings and holidays with the children — set to one of his favourite Oasis tracks, Don’t Look Back in Anger, brought many in the church to tears. There was laughter too, as family friend Fr John Skinnader remembered Mr McKenna’s mischief and sense of fun.

“He was a young fella, full of life and ready for any devilment that came along.”

Friends from Saudi Arabia, England, Wales and throughout Ireland met each other again for the first time in years as they added their last respects in a condolences book outside the church.

One said: “All I remember is laughing long and hard.”

Meanwhile, the funeral of a 40-year-old father-of-one killed in last month’s earthquake in New Zealand will take place on Saturday in Christchurch.

John Joseph O’Connor, known as JJ O’Connor, an accountant from a farming background alongside the village of Abbeydorney north of Tralee, was working in the Pyne Gould building when the quake struck Christchurch on February 22.