This had been one of Adrian's last wishes.

At the entrance to the church, the family paused as the Liverpool anthem 'You'll Never Walk Alone' was played from a hand-held stereo. His second request honoured by his family.

The solitary coffin, draped in a Liverpool away jersey and a flag was then led into the church. Not all Adrian Dunne's detailed funeral instructions, as expressed with his wife Ciara when the couple visited Cooney's funeral directors in New Ross nine days ago, were to be followed.

His wife and daughters Leanne (5) and Shania (3) would not rest with him in the adjoining graveyard, but were laid to rest in his wife's native Donegal. The wishes of Ciara's family were also to be respected.

TV cameras at the back of the church and a strong throng of reporters ensured what for most families is usually a private time of mourning was instead a very public affair.

Chief celebrant, Fr Richard Redmond, drove home the detrimental impact the glaring media spotlight was having on the two very vulnerable families. "How much more difficult for the Dunne and the O'Brien families to be asked to say farewell to so many loved ones, so unexpectedly and so publicly. Let our first act to these shared families who grieve so profoundly be of respect for their dignity and their deep, all-too-exposed pain." The line between intrusion and public interest had never been so thin.

Dressed in black and surrounded by her remaining children, Mary Dunne was visibly numb. Fr Redmond, who was joined at the altar by Monageer's Fr William Cosgrave and Boolavogue's Fr Michael Byrne, vocalised the depth of their bereavement: "We gather in the presence of God, lost, confused, pained and grief-stricken. A tragedy like the one we have faced this past week has thrown everything into a state of confusion. Our minds are filled with questions that are difficult to find answers to, our hearts are flooded with emotions that are almost impossible to handle."

The Bishop of Ferns, Fr Denis Brennan, sent a message of condolence.

Public figures including MEP Avril Doyle, Brendan Howlin (Labour), Liam Twomey (Fine Gael), John Browne (Fianna Fail) and Paul Kehoe (Fine Gael) were present. Some 150 mourners came to pay their final respects.

Outside the church, Mary sobbed as she watched family members lift her son's coffin onto their shoulders and begin the short walk to the adjoining graveyard. The pain of burying her other son James, last month, and her husband Hughie last year seemed too much to bear.

She walked slowly to the familiar graveside to bury a third male member of her immediate family.

As the coffin was lowered to the ground, 'Stairway To Heaven' filtered through a graveside PA system. Larry, Sebastian, Bridget, Maureen and Natasha formed a protective huddle around their mother and held each other. A family united in grief as cameras clicked.