Priest in appeal for information at funeral of murdered teen Cameron
THE parish priest at the funeral of murdered teenager Cameron Reilly appealed from the altar for people with information to come forward.
Further searches are due to be carried out today by the Army for Mr Reilly’s missing iPhone 8, which gardaí say is critical to the murder investigation.
Mourners were told at the funeral that death “seldom comes as shockingly, as cruelly or as poignantly as it has to Cameron”.
The community of Dunleer has never had to deal with a tragedy like this before, “this is unprecedented,” Fr Michael Murtagh, parish priest, said.
Roughly 1,000 mourners attended the funeral in Dunleer, Co Louth, yesterday morning.
The 18-year-old’s body was found in a field in the town just over a week ago.
The Garda investigation into what happened continues and gardaí have made a number of appeals for people with information to come forward.
At the start of the service, his family said, “today we are doing something we never thought we would have to do, say goodbye to Cameron”.
“We want to take this time to ask you all to remember Cameron for the vibrant, generous and loving man that he was and not for the circumstances that bring us here today.”
Fr Murtagh, who celebrated requiem Mass, said: “This community of Dunleer and district is suffering with you. The whole parish community has been
shocked, stunned and deeply saddened.”
In his homily, he said Cameron’s death “left Dunleer in deep dismay. People were wondering out loud how he should have succumbed to such a cruel twist of fate.
“The old, it is said, go to their death. Death comes to the young. It seldom comes as shockingly, as cruelly, or as poignantly as it has to Cameron.”
He said everyone who knew Cameron “knew he was a quiet young man with a real attachment to home and family, and that made his death so strange and so unlikely.
“He was a helpful and courteous young man, well-reared and well-mannered. He had never been the cause of a moment’s trouble or even a moment’s concern to his family.
Questions
“As far as we knew, Cameron was a well-balanced, good-living young man that any family could be proud of. He was very moderate in his habits and very quiet in his personality and his demeanour.”
He said: “Cameron’s death raises some difficult questions and I do not want to avoid them today. I ask and appeal to our young people today to reflect thoughtfully on what has happened and to learn lessons from it.”
He asked them to “examine the patterns of their lives and the direction in which their lives are going”.
“I would ask them to reflect on the kind of people they want to be, the kind of young people they are turning out to be.”