Siblings remember departed brother Harry as 'a whirlwind of love and pure joy'
Second victim of Mayo road tragedy is laid to rest after Requiem Mass
Harry Fagan, the second teenager who died in a road tragedy near his home in Cloonfad on the Mayo/Roscommon border on Friday evening last, was recalled at his funeral today as “a whirlwind of mischief, love and pure joy."
Three of the 19-year-old plasterer’s siblings, Gerard, Shane, and Daniel, remembered their departed brother in separate eulogies at the end of the funeral Mass in St. Patrick’s Church, Cloonfad.
One brother recalled: “Harry lived life his own way and was loved greatly by us all.
"There wasn’t a moment when he wasn’t making us smile or shaking our heads in disbelief at his antics.”
James Daniels, the second youngster to die in Friday’s tragedy and whose funeral Mass was celebrated yesterday, got a special mention from the Fagan brothers in their eulogies.
“James wasn’t a friend, he was family to us," one of the speakers said.
“We loved him like he was one of our own."
Mourners in a packed St. Patrick’s Church were told today that Harry threw himself passionately into everything he did from farming in his younger days to plastering in recent times.
But beyond the cars, beyond the hard work, what really defined Harry was his love for his family and his girlfriend, Kate, the speakers highlighted.
Fr. Stephen Farragher, assisted by Fr. Joe Feeney, Fr. John Collins and Fr. Ray Flaherty, was the main celebrant of the funeral Mass.
Fr. Feeney said the family and community was suffering the loss of a young man that everyone loved, knew what hard work was and always had many friends around him.
Symbols of Harry’s life brought to the altar included a family photo, car keys, representing his passion for selling cars, a builders’ hawk and trowel representing his love of plastering and a copper band and chain gifted him by his father.
Chief mourners at this afternoon’s funeral were Harry's heartbroken parents, Ger and Trish, brothers, Gerard, Shane and Daniel, his girlfriend, Kate and grandparents, Kathleen, Tom and Marion.
Interment took place in Cloonfad Cemetery.