THE FUNERAL Mass of Aaron Friel took place this morning in St Mary’s Church, Cockhill, Buncrana, as mourners gathered to remember the popular 21 year old who died in a road traffic collision last Saturday.
The Requiem Mass was led by chief celebrant Fr Francis Bradley, who welcomed the large attendance at the church, commenting on Aaron’s “huge, huge circle of friends, loyal to the end.” Fr Bradley noted the diversity of the congregation, with mourners present from other religious traditions and persuasions standing alongside Aaron’s own community.
A freshly made St Brigid’s cross was placed at the front of the church, a mark of the fact that Aaron was born on St Brigid’s day, February 1, 2005, the same church in which he was baptised on March 12 that year.
Fr Bradley reflected on the timing of Aaron’s death, noting that last Saturday was Independence Day in the United States, but that today “is not a day to be independent, but to be dependent on each other for support.” The church was flanked on one side by Aaron’s Manchester United top, and on the other by a Donegal jersey signed by an entire former county team.
Fr Bradley quoted from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life, Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.”
Timing, he said, is everything in life, and success depends not only on ability but on taking one’s chances when the rare opportunities of life present themselves.
He encouraged mourners not to dwell on how Aaron died, but on how he lived over 21 years. Aaron was, he said, a “laid back fella who lived life to the full,” whose playful company would now be on hold until, hopefully, all meet again.
Aaron – a young man who was held in high regard by a very large circle of friends.
The eldest of a “band of five brothers,” Aaron looked out for his younger siblings, who mutually adored him, and for whom his loss is immense. Of his large circle of friends, Fr Bradley remarked that at least 40 could be counted among his closest.
Fr Bradley spoke movingly of Aaron’s zest for life, recalling how he had overcome Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which he had at the tender age of just 11, taking 22 tablets a day, an illness he bore without complaint. During his time as a patient in Crumlin hospital, with his parents sleeping on the floor on either side of his bed, Aaron’s kindness still shone through, once asking, “Do you want my pillow, Mammy?”
Though his illness cut short his Gaelic football, Aaron took up golf and cards instead. Fr Bradley said he had been gathering card players on the very night he died, adding that while Aaron was hard to read across a card table, in life he was an open book. He spoke too of Aaron’s quiet faith.
In closing, Fr Bradley returned to his theme of timing, reciting the familiar rhyme of the cuckoo, who comes in April, sings in May, and by July has flown away. Aaron, he said, had been born at the start of spring and had departed in July, called not by the voice of the cuckoo, but by the voice of the shepherd.