Mourners at the funeral of A5 road crash victim Caolan Devlin have heard how he “had the eye to see what others needed and the heart to go out and try to help whenever he could”.
The 30-year-old from Coalisland was also remembered as a skilled hurler as well as a “true friend”.
He was killed in a collision on the Curr Road section of the A5 between Omagh and Ballygawley on Tuesday after his BMW 320 collided with a blue Scania lorry.
Family and friends of Mr Devlin, the older brother of current Tyrone GAA player Niall Devlin, gathered at Church of the Holy Family on Saturday to say their final farewells.
A guard of honour was formed by members of Mr Devlin’s Naomh Colmcille hurling club outside the church.
Fr Eugene O’Neill told mourners that they had to say “farewell to a young man who was just starting out on his life, who was still filled with so many hopes and dreams and ambitions, like every young man in this world”.
“And it seems so wrong that for us to have to gather and say farewell, but what we do today we do with that great sense of numb and shock within us,” he said.
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The priest described how Mr Devlin “brought love and goodness and happiness to the lives of all those that he met”.
“He had the eye to see what others needed and the heart to go out and try to help whenever he could,” he said.
“He grew to be a man that you, Gerard and Margaret, were so proud of, a man who gave you a reason to love him every day.”
He added: “As a brother, he was that true friend that we all need in life.”
Fr O’Neill also spoke about how Mr Devlin was “skilled at his game, winning an all-Ireland under-21 club medal and would have won with the (Coalisland) Fianna too no doubt if his true love wasn’t with the hurling”.
“And off the pitch his team found him a true friend too,” he added.
“Someone always willing to share their lives and their laughs, and yet someone that they could always rely on.”
Mr Devlin is survived by his parents Gerard and Margaret and brother Niall.
Following the funeral service, he was laid to rest in SS Mary and Joseph’s Cemetery.
— CLG-CC Naomh Colum Cille (@NaomhColumCille) March 7, 2024
