FIONNTÁN McGarvey “lit our sky with his big smile”, mourners at his funeral heard yesterday.
The talented 18-year-old sportsman died in the Royal Victoria Hospital on Thursday after he was assaulted outside the Devenish Complex on Finaghy Road North in Belfast early on December 27.
Police launched a murder investigation and arrested a 21-year-old man. He was later released on bail pending further inquiries.
Mr McGarvey’s funeral Mass was celebrated at St Brigid’s Church near his home on Derryvolgie Avenue in south Belfast yesterday.
Parish priest Fr Edward O’Donnell said it was difficult to know what words would console Mr McGarvey’s family and loved ones.
“Perhaps simply being here and sharing in the helplessness and pain says all that can be said or needs to be said,” he said.
He told mourners that their lives had been enriched by knowing the teenager.
“There are those who say that when a person dies a star falls from the sky,” he said.
“A falling star is a wonderful sight. For a moment it holds our attention and then it is gone.
“Such was Fionntán. For too short a while he lit our sky with his big smile, his love and his friendship, with his talent and sportsmanship.
“Today we feel bereft now that the star has fallen. Yet is it not true to say that we have been enriched by knowing him, as a son, as a brother, as a friend, as a teammate?”
Mr McGarvey was a student at Queen’s University Belfast. He played for Queen’s and St Brigid’s GAC in south Belfast. He also played soccer for Aquinas FC.
A large number of his friends and young teammates paid their respects yesterday.
“To all our young people here I offer these few words: friendship is a wonderful facet of love,” Fr O’Donnell said.
“Fionntán was your friend. That friendship, in your youthful enthusiasm for life, you took for granted, and rightly so.
“But, as a poet once observed, ‘love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation’.
“A loving friendship is the most wonderful thing in the world. That, more than anything else, makes us truly human. That alone Jesus placed at the heart of our faith. Everything else is secondary.”
Fr O’Donnell said “there are times when we pay a heavy price for love”.
“Yet, even in the sadness of this day, if we find the renewed sense, that in the end, love and friendship are our most valued possessions, then Fionntán has left us an amazing gift,” he said.
“He blessed us with his friendship; with gratitude, we will for ever hold his memory dear.”
Fionntán is survived by his parents Lorcan and Aveen, brothers Caolán and Dáire and sister Sorcha.
