Mourners pay tribute to ‘hero’ Garda

THOUSANDS turned out last night for the removal of the tragic Co Wicklow Garda killed in Monday’s floods.

Ciaran Jones, 25, was swept to his death in the River Liffey at the Ballysmuttan Bridge near his home in Manor Kilbride, west Co Wicklow, as he came to the aid of motorists during torrential rain.

The body of the off-duty Garda was found on Tuesday morning some 4km downstream of where he entered the water.

Ciaran’s mother and father Brenda and John, brother Alan and sister Michelle, as well as his girlfriend Clare, were the chief mourners.

President Mary McAleese also attended the short service last night at St Brigid’s Church in Ciaran’s home village, in one of her last duties as president.

Also there to pay their respects was Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan, the Taoiseach’s aide-de-camp Commandant Michael Treacy, and Mick O’Dwyer, the former Wicklow county manager.

In a moving tribute to the deceased, an inter county gaelic football star for Wicklow, Father Padraig McDermott told mourners of Kilbride’s “hero”.

“I’ve never experienced a funeral like it,” he said.

“All the people outside this church in total silence as they waited for the remains of Ciaran, our friend. It’s a mark of the wonderful respect people had for him.”

Father McDermott told how on the day of his death, Ciaran was helping the Walsh family, after flood waters hit their property.

He said following this, Ciaran and some friends went to the Ballysmuttan Bridge, where the off-duty Garda went to warn an oncoming motorist of the danger of crossing the bridge, which had collapsed two years earlier in similar weather.

“Ciaran’s life ended in a good deed and that was the whole of his life,” Father McDermott added

The community was “everything to him” and Ciaran “enjoyed life to the full”.

“I have never seen so many tears or broken hearts in our community,” he said. “He died as he lived — doing good.”

He added: “He will leave wonderful memories. Love and service was his life, and it was always done with a joyful smile… everything he did, he did cheerfully.”