WARM APPLAUSE RANG through St Matthew’s Church in Ballyfermot this afternoon as a letter from Kenneth O’Brien’s father was read to the congregation describing the 33-year-old as an “intelligent, handsome and loving” man, who will be missed every day by his family and friends.
Earlier in the service, Fr Joe McDonald had described the manner of the murder victim’s death as an offence to God.
Kenneth’s partner Eimear and their young son, Charlie, brought gifts to the altar at the start of the service – including a pair of motorcycle gloves, a baseball cap and family pictures.
Here’s his father Gerry’s tribute, in full…
We feel so privileged and honoured to be able to say Kenneth was our son.
The sudden loss of Kenneth and the circumstances surrounded his death are more than any parent, partner, son, family or friend of anyone should ever have to endure.
We have lost a son. Our grandson has lost his father. Eimear has lost her partner. Lee and Janine have lost their brother. Not to mention the heartbreak of Kenneth’s grandparents, godparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, extended family, circle of friends.
This has affected all of us in the worst possible way.
‘Outpouring of support’
Over the past three weeks there has been an outpouring of support and comfort from our close family, relatives, friends, including friends of Kenneth and Eimear, work colleagues of us all, and even strangers.
From the bottom of our hearts we would like to thank you all. This has meant so much to us and we would have not been able to get through this ordeal without all of your kindnesses.
I’d like to thank the gardaí and members of the public for all your help. We understand that this has not always been the outcome in these situations.
We are so grateful to be able to put our son to rest.
We love you Kenneth.
We need to send a special thanks to the Garda liaison officer assigned to us. We’ve been treated in the most professional, respectful and compassionate way.
This has meant so much to us and we appreciate this more than words can say in dealing with the death of our son.
Finally – our Kenneth was an intelligent, handsome, loving dad. And although we have lost him at this early stage of his life all of us are thankful that he’s been here for the past 33 years.
Precious Kenneth. We are all so proud of you.
We all love you madly. We always have, and will forever.
And as a family we have comfort in knowing Ken died knowing he was loved and he loved us.
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