Family urged to seek solace in their faith as Vakaris buried

The Polish priest who conducted the funeral Mass of a toddler from East Cork who died after falling from a window struggled to hold back the tears during the service.

And as the 3ft-long white coffin was wheeled through the Church of the Most Holy Rosary in Midleton with his heartbroken parents Vidas and Aukse and sister Agneta behind, there was scarcely a dry eye to be seen.

Fr Marek Pecak, chaplain to the Polish community in Midleton, led the ceremony, urging the family to seek solace in their faith.

In the churchyard was a hearse laden with lilies and teddy bears. A blue carnation-studded cross with a white teddy bear attached pointed to the heartbreak in the church.

Repeatedly calling little Vakaris Martinaitis ‘Angel Martinaitis’, he attempted to bring comfort to the devastated family and the wider Lithuanian and Irish community by assuring them that their boy “had been brought home by the Lord to his heavenly homeland”.

“He is in his heavenly father’s home and this is what we celebrate today,” he told the Mass of the Angels.

“As Christians we live in life and in death and are on a continuous journey to live with God”, whom he described as “our best friend”.

Fr Pecak said the “early death” of 2-year-old Vakaris had caused his family enormous pain but that he will “find eternal rest in the undying love of Jesus Christ”.

Pupils from the nearby Presentation Primary School, which 7-year-old Agneta attends, sang throughout the Mass.

Kevin Hennessy, the former GAA star who made the 999 call to ambulance services, was among the crowd as was Fine Gael TD David Stanton.

The Martinaitis family will be back in the same church next Saturday when Agneta makes her Holy Communion.

It emerged in recent days that two private ambulances were in Cork at the time of the accident last Monday and could have been on the scene within 20 minutes.

A HSE-commissioned formal inquiry into how the emergency call was managed is under way.

A recording of the call placed by Mr Hennessey, who rushed to help Vakaris and his father Vidas at their home in the Castleredmond Estate at around 2pm last Monday, will be examined to determine whether the operator who took the call was told the boy had fallen from a height.

Mr Hennessy said when he was told there was no ambulance available he was advised to drive the boy to Southdoc. From there he took him to Cork University Hospital where Vakaris lost his fight for life last Wednesday.