Emma asked that funeral pause at Dáil and the Áras
EMMA Mhic Mhathúna’s funeral cortège will pause outside Leinster House, Government Buildings and the Department of Health in Dublin today as a gesture of solidarity with Irish women affected by the CervicalCheck cancer scandal.
Her family said she had requested her final journey pass these landmarks to ask these organisations to ensure no other Irish woman will endure what she had to.
The cortège will also pass Áras an Uachtaráin as a mark of personal appreciation for President Michael D Higgins, who had visited her in Kerry during the summer.
“The purpose of this route is not to protest,” said her family in a statement. “It is a final and departing effort to encourage those within to hold a mirror up to the organisations and agencies that they preside over. Moreover, it is a request to those organisations and agencies to commit to ensure that Emma’s tragic situation will never happen to another Irish mother or woman again.
“Whilst Emma was at odds with institutions and the agencies, her decision to pass by them should not be interpreted as a personal criticism of any one individual but rather the institutions within,” they added.
They said if anyone wishes to pay their respects to Ms Mhic Mhathúna, they hope that they do so as a mark of the “valuable contribution she has undoubtedly made to the future health of the women of Ireland”.
A funeral Mass will be held for the 37-year-old at the Pro-Cathedral at lunchtime today.
If follows a separate funeral at Séipéal na Carraige in her adopted home of Baile na nGall in the west Kerry.
In a gesture specifically requested by Ms Mhic Mhathúna, the media were thanked by her uncles, John and Brendan Moran, for the role they played in helping highlight the CervicalCheck scandal and her case.
“Emma wanted to thank you from the bottom of her heart for what you have done to highlight this,” John said.
Fr Eoghan Ó Cadhla told the packed congregation that Ms Mhic Mhathúna’s death had shocked the tight-knit Gaeltacht community where she had lived for the past 18 months with her five children, Natasha, Seamus, Mario, Oisín and Donnacha.
“Her love for her beautiful children will live with me forever,” Fr Ó Cadhla said. “Her courage, her faith, her dignity and her resilience are an inspiration to me and all the people who got to know her in Corcha Dhuibhne and far beyond this place. We know that her five children are broken-hearted by her loss. She was very selfless in helping others and we often questioned where she got her strength from when she was so very ill.”
Mourners also included Ms Mhic Mhathúna’s father, Peter, her uncles John and Brendan, and her aunts.