Poignant tributes as tragic Ryan laid to rest
Of the hundreds who attended the funeral Mass of the little schoolboy, theirs was a particularly heavy burden. “There is something particularly cruel in being asked to bury your grandchild,” whispered a mourner as Ryan’s Granny O’Dwyer lit the funeral candle from her grandchild’s baptismal candle.
She was among more than 200 mourners for his funeral Mass in the Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne, better known locally as the North Chapel and barely a stone’s throw from Ryan’s home in Hollyhill.
Family members from Mahon joined friends and relatives from north of the River Lee to say farewell to Ryan and to offer consolation to his parents, Paddy and Josephine.
It was a morning of contrasts — bright and sunny outside, sombre and mournful inside. Cheer and smiles on the streets from early shoppers dashing home to watch the royal wedding, tears and heartache for those who had come to mourn Ryan and to pray for his aunt, Helena, both killed in a fire at a house on Nutley Avenue in Mahon.
For years to come, Ryan’s extended family will remember the day of his death, Easter Sunday, a day associated with Christian rebirth, and will also recall his burial as the day when much of the world was celebrating — cruel reminders that, even in the midst of their despair, vibrant life goes on.
For some, the moment was almost too much to bear. As the Mass of the Angels began, the starchy cool interior of the cathedral all-but shook to the sound of sobbing as family, friends and locals knelt in prayer.
The sadness of the moment was not lost on Fr Tom Walsh from the cathedral parish, who concelebrated the Mass with Fr Michael Kidney from Mahon. Before paying his own tribute to the sunny little boy from Sunvalley Drive, he gazed at the tiny coffin before him and reflected on the fragility of life.
“You never get used to seeing a white coffin,” he told mourners.
“You never get used to burying a child.”
Acknowledging that Ryan’s life had been cut short despite having barely flowered, he described the attack as an outrage.
“On Sunday morning the Angel of Death brought destruction to the O’Dwyer home and, unfortunately, an attack like this is not an isolated incident.”
Addressing Ryan’s parents, he said: “You can see the torn image of pain on their faces. No parent ever forgets the death of a child they gave birth to. They will always wonder what Ryan would have become and think of his potential lost forever. This will live with them for the rest of their lives.”
Fr Walsh also spoke of the outpouring of love and goodwill towards Ryan’s immediate family and urged the congregation to find comfort within their communities.
“We must hold no bitterness in our hearts,” he told them.
“Let this tragic death help us to understand that tears are wasted if they do not prevent other tears.”
Fr Walsh was mindful, too, of Ryan’s age and of the many children among the mourners, choosing CS Lewis’ classic novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as inspiration for his homily on the battle between good and evil.
Ryan’s teacher, Vicky Ryan from North Presentation Convent Primary School, said that in the eight short months she had known him, she had grown to love and cherish the bright-eyed, cheerful and popular student.
“Everyone wanted to either sit behind or in front of Ryan in class or, better still, to hold his hand. His classmates loved him,” she said, her voice breaking.
The hundreds of bright and colourful flowers adorning the cathedral were testament to that and a particularly poignant moment came when Ryan’s schoolbag, a Nintendo DS, his favourite toy, and one of the Easter eggs he was to receive last Sunday, were brought to the altar as Noreen Sexton sang Angels Watching Over Me to a simple guitar accompaniment.
Ryan’s aunt Helena O’Dwyer will be buried in an adjoining plot at St Michael’s cemetery in Mahon tomorrow.
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