Independent, loyal Mairéad ‘was building her future’

Hand-in-hand, the parents of the woman who was stabbed to death at her workplace last week, made their way to the front of the church near the end of her funeral Mass yesterday and paid a loving tribute to their daughter.

Tears flowed in the packed St Eoghan’s Church in Kilmoganny, Co Kilkenny, as Margo Moran, supported by her husband Pete, fondly remembered her 26-year-old daughter Mairéad’s short life and spoke of how much the young woman was loved.

“Mairéad was happy, smiling, loyal, an independent woman, loving her job, building her future,” Mrs Moran said as the hundreds inside the church and hundreds more outside listened on in silence. “As she said herself, ‘you know me Mam, just getting on with my life’.

“We are so glad she did. It was too short. Mairéad you were loved so much. Keep on smiling on us all, we need it,” Mrs Moran finished.

Minutes later, the coffin bearing the remains of Mairéad was carried outside into the heart of the village of Kilmoganny.

Within yards of the grocery shop owned by her parents, the coffin was placed inside the hearse which took her on her last journey, the short distance to Kilmoganny Cemetery.

The assistant manager at the Holland and Barrett health shop in Kilkenny Market Cross shopping centre had been fatally stabbed last Thursday night.

Her mother yesterday remembered a daughter who was “born to be loved” and was looked on as “our baby”, as well as being younger sister to Colette and Michelle.

Her interests included her love of cats, which often involved her convincing her parents that strays she found “really needed a home on our side of the road”, and would eventually end up in their house, despite Mairéad’s assurances that they would be kept outside.

There were also her carpentry projects with friends, as her Sylvanian Families collection, “still stashed safely in our attic” and her devotion to Harry Potter, which took her to Dublin to queue overnight for the books when they were first published, as well as to Scotland to visit the set of one of the movies.

As her mother said, the interests were developed “with commitment and enthusiasm” throughout her daughter’s life.

“Mairéad’s greatest talent was in making and keeping loyal friends, her circle ever-expanding,” she said. “We often teased her on her ability to summon a crowd at a moment’s notice.

“These last few days she has surpassed herself.”

“We can never thank enough everyone for the support they have given, proof that friendship, love, family, and community are what make life worthwhile.”

Yesterday’s funeral Mass was concelebrated by six priests, with parish priest Fr Nicholas Flavin the chief celebrant.

In his homily, he said all who were present for the were attempting “to come to terms with something that is unexpected, something that each one of us cannot fully explain”.

Now that Mairéad is gone, left behind are the memories of her life, he said. “It’s in memory that we keep alive what has been there in the past,” Fr Flavin said. “Her spirit will live on, not only now, but into the future.”