Ciara Gibbs, the Kilkenny schoolgirl who died in unexplained circumstances just over a week ago, was laid to rest in a graveyard near Slievenamon yesterday. She had, according to one mourner, "come home to her people's place" in south Tipperary.
The mourners had gathered to grieve but also celebrate the 16-year-old's tragically short life at the church of St John the Baptist in the village of Kilcash, where parish priest Fr William Carey said "a great gloom" had fallen over the community.
Some had travelled from Co Kilkenny where the Gibbs family had moved to live at Killure, near Goresbridge, some years ago.
It was there that the teenager's body was discovered on Sunday week last by her father and brother on their return to the house from an overnight trip. Gardaí believe she died from drowning in a bath at the house and are continuing to investigate her death.
Her father, Gerard Gibbs, a lecturer in aviation electronics at the Carlow Institute of Technology, 14-year-old brother, Gearóid, and grandmother, May Gibbs, were among the chief mourners at yesterday's funeral.
Her mother, psychiatrist Dr Lynn Hutchinson, who was found "in a collapsed state" close to her daughter's body, was unable to attend.
During the Mass, a prayer was offered for "all those in hospital, including Lynn".
There was standing-room only in the little church 30 minutes before the requiem Mass began at noon.
Classmates brought gifts to the altar, celebrating the life of the "academically gifted" girl, including her music and maths workbooks and a tiny pink chair she had made for art class.
Chief celebrant Fr Rodney Whearty, chaplain to the Loreto secondary school in Kilkenny city where Ciara was a transition year student, said that at a prayer service at the school 10 days ago, Ciara had read from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah. This same reading was selected for the funeral Mass.
As the coffin was carried to the historic graveyard beside the church, schoolgirls from Loreto college formed a guard of honour in bitterly cold winds for the "beautiful and talented" former pupil. She was buried close to Kilcash Castle on the southern slopes of Slievenamon.
Senior Garda sources last night said the investigation into the teenager's death was unlikely to be advanced until Dr Hutchinson can be interviewed.
She is currently being treated in St Patrick's Hospital, Dublin.Gardaí believe that given her poor condition, they may not be able to interview her for some time, possibly a number of weeks.
