Max Wall 'was not afraid. He died listening to the voice of a father who loved him,' funeral hears

The parents of one of two Dublin school leavers who died on a Greek island holiday have paid tribute to their ‘fabulous son’ at his funeral (Niall Carson/PA)

Max Wall, the teenager who died while on holiday in Greece with his Leaving Cert classmates, was on the phone to his father when he passed away, his funeral mass has heard.

School chaplain Fr Paddy Moran told the hundreds of mourners packed into the Church of the Sacred Heart of Donnybrook that: “One second Max was living, and the next he was not. It was as quick that, Max did not suffer. 

"He was not afraid, he died listening to the voice of a father who loved him. There is consolation in that” he said.

The 18-year-old’s heartbroken parents Niall and Fiona and brother Charlie said that Max had been “robbed of his future”.

Together with 90 students from St. Michael’s College in south Dublin, Max Wall had travelled to the island of Ios for their end-of-year exams a fortnight ago.

The 18-year-old died around an hour after the remains of his school friend Andrew O’Donnell were discovered near a cliff on the island. Andrew, who had gone missing on July 1 and fell, will be laid to rest on Wednesday.

Max had been helping in the search operation when he fell ill and died from a suspected heart attack.

His mother, Fiona Wall read the Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden. Then, in a moving tribute, she said: “Max our darling boy, we love you forever, we miss you dreadfully, you were a force of nature, and your memory will live on”.

Mourners attend the funeral at the Church of the Sacred Heart Donnybrook as the hearse with the coffin of student Max Wall arrives. Piture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

Max’s classmates from St. Michael’s college wore white shirts and black suits for the service and the song Wildhorses by The Rolling Stones and With or Without You by U2 were played during the ceremony.

School chaplain Fr Paddy Moran described Max as “a loyal friend to so many” and a “devoted Manchester United fan”.

In a powerful highly emotional 30-minute speech, Fr Moran spoke directly to the teenagers who were on holiday with Max when he died.

He said: “I want to tell you the terrible truth about grief, it is awful. Max, your friend and classmate is dead.

“For all of you this is an awful reality to process, for you men who were on the island I know you carry a very heavy burden in your hearts.

“Naturally your minds are filled with endless questions, and you wonder could I have done something more, should I have done or said something and would Max still be alive?"

He then quoted from the last verse of Phil Coulter’s song ‘ The Town I Love So Well’.

“He writes for what’s done is done, and what’s won is won, and what is lost is lost and gone forever,” he said.

“That is the truth of grief, what’s done is done. You were young men celebrating the leaving certificate, you did your best in a situation that was awful.

“All the could haves and should haves, don’t change anything. What’s lost is lost and gone forever. That is the truth of grief”.

The service heard how about Max’s great love for Manchester United. Nicknamed 'Giggsy', he was laid out in his home on Sunday in his graduation suit with a Manchester United badge on his lapel, and the club shirt “draped over a nearby chair”.

Max Wall (right) fell ill at the island’s port as he was about to board a ferry. Hours earlier, the body of fellow pupil at St Michael’s College in south Dublin, Andrew O’Donnell (left), was found on a rocky hill on the island.

Max’s father Niall Wall paid tribute to his son’s classmate Andrew O’Donnell, who also died on the holiday.

He said both families had “forged the closest of friendships through our joint journey through what has only been a nightmare over the last week”.

He said: “Today marks the end of an eight-day journey for us, with the most profound cruelty as not only taken Max from us but has robbed him of a bright future and the sense of loss that we feel is so deep because of what he has lost”.

“Max was full of life, he was the best craic, and he was full of fun, the best kind. That is just one dimension of the intelligent young man that he was."

His father described how Max was very unwell in 2020 and underwent a 16-hour operation three years ago on his heart at Crumlin Children’s Hospital.

“It was a huge operation where he had to have his aorta valve replaced followed immediately by a splenectomy and we were very very lucky that he survived all of that” he said.

“Before he went to surgery, he was told exactly the dangers and how sick he was. He accepted that so stoically, in fact, he was much better than Fiona (his mother) and I were”.

He ended by saying Max “was fabulous and we will love him forever”.