‘Godly men and best friends’ laid to rest

A woman who tried in vain to rescue her father and two brothers when they were overcome by killer fumes paid an emotional tribute to them at their funeral.

Emma Spence twice climbed into a manhole and then into a slurry tank on the family farm near Hillsborough, Co Down, where her father Noel, 58, and brothers Graham, 30, and Ulster Rugby player Nevin, 22, all died at the weekend.

Graham had lowered a ladder into the manhole to retrieve a pet dog whichdisappeared into the tank, according to Edwin Poots, a friend and near neighbour.

Noel then went in to try to save his son and he was followed by Nevin, a member of the Ulster squad, when he realised the other two were in danger.

Ms Spence, an artist, then went down and managed to pull her father on to the ladder, where she was assisted by neighbours, who tried to resuscitate Noel. Ms Spence went back a second time and found Graham in the tank lying in 2ft or 3ft of slurry.

She was overcome by fumes and had to be pulled free by neighbours who ran to the tank after hearing her calls for help.

“They were gentlemen,” Ms Spence told the mourners at Ballynahinch Baptist Church.

“They were hard-working men. They were not perfect but they were genuine. They were best friends.

“They were godly men — they didn’t talk about God, they just did God.

“They were just ordinary — but God made them extraordinary.”

Ms Spence, who was admitted to hospital after Saturday’s accident, wasaccompanied by her sister Laura, their mother Essie, and Graham’s wife Andrea at the funeral service.

Nevin’s teammates carried his coffin into and out of the church.

Irish rugby coach Declan Kidney and Tyrone Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte were some of the well-known sporting faces amid more than 2,000 mourners.

During her address to mourners, Ms Spence spoke affectionately about each of her loved ones in turn.

Earlier, Rev Rodney Stout described the men as “three peas in a pod”.

“The two sons, while having their individual characters and giftedness, nevertheless were most certainly chips off the old block,” said Rev Stout.

He said they had left behind as positive a legacy as any family could have.

He said the circumstances of their deaths — as they risked their lives to save each other — reflected how they lived.

“That expression of helping each other was not simply one that manifesteditself in a moment of danger,” he said.

“It was resolutely their day-to-day motivation in life for every member oftheir family, and indeed towards their neighbours, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, colleagues, friends, and strangers.

“He wasn’t the sort of man to verbalise his affection but members of his family, and those outside, knew what it was to be loved by him and cared for by him.

“People have told me it would be difficult to find a more hospitable neighbour or trustworthy businessman.

“He was a very private and unobtrusive man and the thought of the attention he and his family are attracting just now would quite literally horrify him.”

The pastor said Graham, father to Nathan and Georgia, was committed to his family and the farm.

“His motivation for his tireless effort and dedicated hard work was to providefor Andrea, Nathan, and Georgia,” said Rev Stout.

“Andrea knew him as her loving, devoted husband, her best friend and truesoulmate. They often joked with each other that they existed within their ownbubble and no one loved each other as much as they did. He doted on their two children, Nathan and Georgia, and whenever they were around him his eyes lit up.”

Rev Stout said rising star Nevin, although tipped to represent Ireland at international level, did not consider himself a famous rugby player, and described himself as “normal” at a recent church event.

“That is really how he viewed himself and he, like Noel and Graham, attributed his ability to keep his feet on the ground, his head out of the clouds and his life on an even keel, as directly related to the relationship he had with God through Jesus Christ,” said Rev Stout.

A private family service was held at the Spences’ house ahead of the funeral.

After the funeral, the men were taken for burial at the nearby Inch Cemetery.