BOXER Eamonn Magee should have been preparing for a special celebration, marking the anniversary of the day he `turned pro', instead family and friends were gathered at a windswept church to bid him farewell.
A huge funeral cortge accompanied the 22-year-old's body from the family home in Hannahstown to nearby St Joseph's Catholic Church.
The Ulster University student died after suffering multiple stab wounds, including through his heart and lung, outside a house in west Belfast last Saturday.
Mourners had heeded a call to wear the young boxer's favourite colour - red - and the sombre scene was cut with flashes of its brightness, from scarlet coats to sports jerseys and vermilion ties and scarves.
When the coffin emerged from the house, three red balloon hearts were released, catching on gusts of wind to skirt round a canopy of umbrellas and on up into the heavens.
His mother Mary had to be supported as she and his father, Eamonn Magee snr, were among the pall bearers carrying the coffin to the church.
Irish boxing figures including Hugh Russell, Martin Lindsay, Martin Rogan and Kevin `Sweet Pea' O'Neill also took the weight in turn during that final journey.
Former boxing promoter Barney Eastwood and Belfast boxing trainer John Breen were among the hundreds of mourners who turned out to pay their respects.
Mr Magee's youngest brother Ethan carried his brother's Irish light welterweight belt.
Inside, there were two large pictures, one celebrating a boxing victory and another featuring a very young Eamonn and siblings with their parents entitled `Happier Days'.
Despite a capacity of 500, the church could not hold all those who came to pay their last respects to the popular young man, with hundreds braving the rain to standing outside and listen to the poignant service through speakers.
Fr Kevin McGuckien told mourners of the "anguish" felt by Eamonn and Mary Magee on the loss of the son who "had been robbed of the very life that they had given him".
"Eamonn and Mary spoke about their son and expressed their deepest desire which was to hold Eamonn in their loving arms," he said.
"That sentiment which came from the very depths of their grief stricken hearts reminded me of the day - Sunday 20th June 1993 - when Eamonn and Mary cradled their son in their arms and brought him to the Church of the Sacred Heart in north Belfast to be baptised."
Those gathered heard how he had grown from a "shy child... into a confident young man who... was ever loving, caring and supportive".
Fr McGuckien said Eamonn's life "has touched the lives of so many in such a positive way".
"Eamonn had so much more to achieve and to give from that deep reservoir of talent and goodness that he constantly tapped into during his 22 years," he said.
"Eamonn in his short life achieved so much. The love, care and support that he gave to you his family is immeasurable. Eamonn and Mary you have spoken of your son in such affectionate terms: your blue-eyed boy; your right hand man; your ever protective and loving son."
Following in the footsteps of his father, he had become a boxer, winning many county, Ulster and All Ireland titles and with a "very promising professional career ahead of him".
In addition to marking the first anniversary of turning professional today, Mr Magee was just completing his first year of a Housing Management course at Jordanstown and planning to run a Lisburn half-marathon to raise money for the Tiny Life neonatal charity in support of his nephew and Godson Cormac.
"Tiny Life provides for premature babies who are clinging to life; this is why it is so unfair, so unjust that he should have been denied his inalienable right to life," Fr McGuckien said.
"Eamonn, Mary and family none of us know the depth of your pain, your heartbreak or your anger that has overtaken your lives with the cruel and callous way that Eamonn was taken from you. "
He was buried afterwards in the adjoining cemetery, where six white doves were released over the grave.
