Tears for Daniel, 4, who ‘always had glint in his eye’

MOURNERS were told yesterday that a four-year- old boy crushed beneath a thick steel door always had a happy glint in his eye.

They heard Daniel Cleary loved playing at his home in his “Wellies” and jeans. A toy digger was among the wreaths in the hearse with his white coffin.

About 1,200 people grieved with Daniel’s parents Keith and Patricia at the funeral Mass in St Patrick’s Church, Donegal town, where his maternal grandparents, Patrick and Mary Gildea, are sacristans. Daniel has just one brother David, aged two.

His coffin was carried in the rain before it was placed in the hearse for the burial 2km away in Clar cemetery.

Danny Boy was sung as the remains were carried out of the church.

Parish priest Fr Willie Peoples said: “Little Daniel was a very kind and caring and a lovely little child. He always had a smile and a lovely glint in his eye.”

Daniel, who would have been five in August, died on Thursday evening when a 6ft high 7 inches thick steel door separated from a shipping container and crushed him in a yard close to his home at Drumbar, near Donegal town, where his father ran a haulage business. His father was in Scotland on business at the time of the tragedy.

Gardaí said the only investigation was an inquiry for a coroner’s inquest.

Supt Jim Coen said: “It was an unbelievably freak accident.”

Daniel died at the scene.