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FORMER JOURNALIST AIDEEN Kennedy was an inspiration who lit up every room she entered, mourners at her funeral have heard.
The 43-year-old mother of two, who was best known from her time as a reporter with UTV, died in hospital last week, hours after revealing on social media that she was receiving palliative care for an illness.
Aideen Kennedy, from Belfast, was the last surviving sibling of four children.
She, her sister Fiona and brothers Rory and Dara have all now died before their parents, Maura and Noel.
Retired cleric Father Sean McCartney, who also presided at the funerals of Fiona and Dara, told the congregation at the Good Shepherd Church in Belfast that he was not aware of another couple who had suffered so much loss.
“I’ve officiated at three of Maura and Noel’s children, of Dara and Fiona and now Aideen – it’s very difficult for me but so much more difficult for Maura and Noel,” he said.
“And I’m just delighted to be of some comfort and some support to them at this very difficult time.
“I know of no other couple who have suffered the loss of all of their children at any particular time.”
Fr McCartney spoke of the outpouring of “warm tributes” to Ms Kennedy since her death, which characterised her as someone who “lit up every room she went into”.
He said he was particularly impressed by the words of her long-time friend, DUP MLA Emma Little Pengelly, who described her as “beautiful, funny and kind”.
Former UTV colleagues were among those who joined Ms Kennedy’s friends and family at this morning’s funeral to say a final farewell.
A photo of the journalist with her children, Jacob and Eva, was placed at the front of the church, close to her wicker coffin.
During his homily, Fr McCartney referred to an interview Ms Kennedy gave to a Belfast newspaper several years ago.
In the article she described herself as someone who loved friends and family, who hated inequality and prejudice, and whose main regret in life was being unable to go back in time to say sorry to anyone she had hurt.
“What an inspiration,” said the cleric.
He added: “Her answer to those three questions just sums up the sort of person she was.”
“When Noel rang me on Friday to say that Aideen had died, to say the least I was shocked, I was without words.”
“I couldn’t believe that Maura and Noel… that they would suffer the death of their fourth (child), all their children.
“Noel said to me ‘It’s God’s will’.
“Well, I’m not happy about that phrase ‘It’s God’s will’. It’s used very often, but I struggle to know how it’s God’s will, how a mother of two young children in her early 40s… that that’s God’s will that she should be taken from us at this particular time.
“But it just shows you there are some questions that there are not really satisfactory answers to on this side of the grave.
“I certainly struggle. I always struggle with the death of a young mother particularly, (but also) any parent.”
So life has not gone well and I am as sick as I was as when I went in to hospital so essentially going home to die but getting palliative care. The kids know. If you ever come across them, will you an eye out for them, they are the kindest, sweetest most thoughtful kiddies. pic.twitter.com/NX2r6ILMzd
— Aideen Kennedy (@Aideen_Reporter) June 17, 2022
Writing on Twitter on Friday about receiving palliative care, Ms Kennedy asked her followers to “keep an eye out” for her children, whom she described as the “kindest, sweetest most thoughtful kiddies”.
The reporter’s older sister, Fiona, died from cancer in 2016 at the age of 44, less than a year after their brother Dara died from a brain tumour aged 35.
Their older brother Rory was killed in a road accident when he was just a year old.
At the weekend, Ms Kennedy’s former employer said UTV was “deeply saddened” at the death of their friend.
“A truly gifted reporter, she spent many years at UTV bringing viewers stories from all over Northern Ireland,” the broadcaster said in a statement.
We are a small country with services stretched to breaking point thanks to Fine Fail Fine Gael. We must prioritise our people while providing protection to refugees that we can handle.
I’m waiting for the comments from the underclass who help absolutely nobody – ‘“ere wha abou de homeless and de peeples on de trollies in de hospitals”
@Robert Johnson Fagan: The underclass ? Explain please.
@Robert Johnson Fagan: Underclass = poor who need housing and health.
I suggest cutting the millions which are given to ‘charity’ NGOs and advocacy groups. Does anyone know how many and how much the are costing?
@John Lynch: It makes sense to help our poor who need housing and healthcare. However for some, especially the chattering classes who like to be seen doing the “right thing”, telescopic philanthropy is sexier.
@Robert Johnson Fagan:
You being in the Upper Class no doubt? lol
This piece we are commenting on is classic NGO advocacy output.
They are onto Ukraine like vultures.
If there is fighting to be done – it will be the underclass who will be called to do it.
If “Women, children and older people make up the vast majority of this population” then why is it that in every single photo I see of Ukrainian refugees that have arrived here there are a large number of men under the age of forty, all of whom seem to have a completely different ethnic background to the women?
https://carlow-nationalist.ie/2022/04/15/carlow-takes-in-200-ukrainian-refugees
https://carlow-nationalist.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Joe-OBrien-TD-visit-to-Carlow-College-s-4.jpg
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