Hundreds pay last respects for Dolores McCrea

Hundreds of mourners gathered today for the funeral of mother-of-four Dolores McCrea, who was killed in January.

Father Daniel McBrearty told the tightly-knit congregation of Ballintra in Co Donegal that Mrs McCrea would be sadly missed by her children and the community.

One onlooker said: “The church was filled to overflowing as people turned out to pay their respects.”

The coffin was carried from the church by four male family members while Mrs McCrea‘s daughters, Sharon, Laura, Tanya and four-year-old Leona, followed behind.

Each daughter carried a single red rose in an emotional tribute to their mother.

Rain began to fall as the cortage emerged from the church to bring her remains to the local cemetary.

Mrs McCrea was laid to rest 100-yards away in the graveyard of St Brigid‘s Church, which is not far from where her body was found six-months previously.

People lined the roads outside the church in Ballintra some six-months after the 36-year-old‘s badly-burned remains were recovered at the back of her family home in Ballybulgan.

The lengthy delay in holding her funeral was due to her skeletal remains being sent abroad for extensive DNA tests to formally identify them.

Her estranged husband, Gary McCrea, was charged with her murder in January and has been released on bail.