Mourners support family as Jack, 4, is laid to rest

Little Jack McDonnell Cummins lay in a white coffin in Doon church, surrounded by the christening garments and cup and candle used at his baptism in the same church four years ago.

Jack, who celebrated his fourth birthday last May, died instantly in the impact of a road crash that occurred two weeks ago.

The Mass of the Angels ceremony was thronged with hundreds of mourners who came to pay their respects to the popular boy who “loved nature”, and who “left behind a treasury of love and precious memories”.

Jack’s father John McDonnell — who was driving the car and was seriously injured in the crash on July 22 at Lough Gur, Co Limerick — sat in a wheelchair, his neck protected by a brace.

His fiancée Carmel Cummins sat beside her injured husband along with their six-year-old twin brothers, Séan and Philip, whom Fr Tony Ryan, Doon parish priest, described as “brave little boys” who survived the collision.

The twins had been sitting alongside Jack in the rear of the car when it was involved in a collision with another car at Honeyfitz Cross, Lough Gur.

The family had been returning home from a family picnic in Lough Gur.

Fr Ryan said: “There’s something unreal and something inconsolable from our parting from Jack here this morning. It’s such a sad experience, that it goes against the grain of nature and the rhythm of life itself. Few burdens are heavier than the coffin of a little child and for the parents and brothers walking behind.”

“When you reflect a young family out together for a little picnic, enjoying each others company, enjoying the beautiful weather and the scenery, and for it all to end so abruptly. In trying to come to grips with Jack’s death, we must acknowledge there are no easy answers,” Fr Ryan added.

“Even though Jack’s life had scarcely begun, he has left behind a treasury of love and precious memories. Every parent knows that children pack an awful lot into a single day. One moment in the life of a child is like a day in ours.”