The mother of the teenager who died suddenly at his school in Athlone, Co Westmeath, last week has paid tribute to her "brilliant and courageous" son.
Zeeshan Mohammed (16), who comes from Pakistan, collapsed as he played football with friends at the Marist College in Athlone on Friday, one of four schoolboys to die suddenly last week.
His mother Nabeela said he had no history of illness. "I have no words, I have no idea what happened to my son. He was a perfect, healthy boy," she said at Clonskeagh mosque in Dublin yesterday. "I have seen in the papers about four young boys dying in one week. What is happening? It is very painful."
Nabeela and her two other children Iqra Khana (15) and Bilal Mohammed (13) met mourners at the mosque before travelling to the Muslim cemetery in Newcastle, Co Dublin, for Zeeshan's burial.
"He was my pride. He was a brilliant student and a courageous young man," Nabeela said. "He was active, responsible, respectable and ambitious. He was very nice to his parents, teachers and everybody else."
Zeeshan's mother said she received a phone call on Friday afternoon saying he had collapsed and was being taken to hospital.
"I was so shocked, I couldn't say a word," she said. "When I arrived it was a horrible scene, something I cannot forget for the rest of my life.
"He was lying surrounded by many machines. The doctors were trying to help him but he was just lying motionless."
Nabeela and her three children moved from Lahore in Pakistan to Ireland two years ago.