AN ACT OF EVIL
Priest hits out at 18-yr-old’s murder as he appeals for help to catch killer
CAMERON Reilly’s murder was an act of “evil” that has left his community in shock, his Funeral Mass heard yesterday.
More than 1,000 paid their respects to the 18-year-old student who was strangled near his home in Dunleer, Co Louth, on May 26.
Fr Michael Murtagh told the congregation in St Brigid’s Church: “Human words simply crumble in the face of what is evil.”
He pleaded for young people to come forward with information that may help catch the killer.
THE priest at the funeral of murder victim Cameron Reilly yesterday urged young people to come forward with information that might help catch his killer.
Fr Michael Murtagh said the community was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the “unprecedented” events.
He then made a direct appeal to anyone who might know anything about Cameron’s death last Saturday week to come forward and speak to gardai.
He said: “Talk to each other and please, if anything, even the remotest piece of information that may help, please come forward.”
More than 1,000 mourners attended the funeral in what one man in his 70s described as the biggest crowd he has ever seen at St Brigid’s Church in Dunleer, Co Louth.
The popular teenager’s mother Tracy could not hold back her tears during the service and was comforted by Cameron’s dad Patrick. Parish Priest Fr Murtagh described the student’s shocking murder as “evil”.
The 18-year-old was beaten and strangled after up to 20 youths gathered in a field in the Shamrock Hill area. It is understood an earlier row had broken out outside a chipper in the village.
It is believed gardai are now on the verge of making arrests.
Fr Murtagh said: “Human words crumble in the face of what is evil.”
He added that in the Scriptures the shortest verse is “Jesus wept” .... adding “today Dunleer weeps”.
Mourners were told: “This community has been shocked, stunned and deeply saddened. This is unprecedented, we’ve never had to deal with this kind of incident before.”
Fr Murtagh said everyone who knew Cameron was aware he was a “very quiet young man” attached to his home and family. He added: “That makes the manner of his death so strange and so unlikely.
“News of Cameron’s death has left all of us in deep dismay. People wondering out loud, indeed weeping out loud how he could have succumbed to such a cruel fate.
“The old they say go to their death, death comes to the young.
“It very rarely comes as shockingly or as cruelly or as poignantly as it has come to Cameron.
“His death raises difficult questions and I don’t think we should avoid them today.
“I would appeal to our young people particularly to reflect very thoughtfully on what has happened and to try and learn some lessons from it. I would also ask all of you who are privileged to be parents to listen and to learn from our young people.
“I would also ask our young people to examine the pattern of their lives and the direction they are going.
“I would ask them to reflect on the kind of young people they want to be, the kind of young people they are turning out to be. Life is very precious.”
Fr Murtagh added it was unsurprising Cameron chose to work in hospitality as “hospitality could have been his middle name”.
During the Mass symbols to represent his short life were brought to the altar. These included a Nike trainer box, as well as a Chinese food container as he loved takeaways. To