‘She loved life’: Funeral tributes to road tragedy victim

MOURNERS at the funeral of a women who was killed alongside her lifelong friend when they were hit by a car while out walking have heard how the local community is still reeling.

Deirdre Kilmartin was laid to rest at Creagh Cemetery in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, following her funeral Mass at St Michael’s Church in the town. Her close friend, Maureen Dooley, will also be laid to rest in the same cemetery following her funeral Mass at the church today.

The two women, who were in their 50s, died when a car involved in a two-vehicle accident collided with them while they were walking on Station Road in Ballinasloe around tea-time on Thursday.

Hundreds of mourners were told by Fr Bernie Costello that the town and locality was still in a state of shock.

He said: ‘Our first reaction is one of disbelief: this can’t be happening. That’s the moment your lives have been turned upside down. It has been a terrible few days here in this parish and this community. We are really in a state of shock, of sadness and of hurt.’

He said that Mrs Kilmartin, who worked as a veterinary assistant in the local surgery in Ballinasloe, and who is survived her husband Kieran and her children Emma and James, was a generous person who will be sadly missed not just by her family but by the wider community.

Mrs Kilmartin’s sister Geraldine said the two crash victims were great friends who were often seen out walking in the area. She said: ‘They must have walked thousands of miles... chatting and talking and loving life and sharing stories and waving at people who passed them by. Last year Dee did the Camino [walk in Spain] and we never laughed so much. She would be walking 25km around Ballinasloe and Galway and then she had to go do it in 30degree heat. But she loved it.’

Mrs Kilmartin’s brother Declan Flanagan said she was a kind and generous person who always thought of others. He said: ‘Deirdre made people feel better. After I had a hospital stay a few years ago, Deirdre called me in Chicago. I cannot recount the conversation word for word but I remember how it made me feel and I think of it often. So as we mourn a life taken too soon, let us all celebrate how Deirdre made us feel. A toast to a wonderful woman, who loved and is loved.’