A devoted mother murdered in Australia was “always smiling, always warm” and left every room better than it was when she found it, her funeral Mass has heard.
A 45-year-old man, who is also understood to be Irish and who was known to Ms O’Reilly, has been charged with her murder.
“We come together this morning with hearts that are broken,” Father Dan Carroll told her Requiem Mass today at St John’s Church in Kilkenny.
“We suffer the pain of losing Annemarie at 30 years of age in a way that none of us can fully understand.” Ms O’Reilly was “so pleasant to meet – always smiling, always warm,” he said.
“Not everyone leaves a room better than it was when they found it but Annemarie did,” he said.
People had travelled from many places to be with her family today and many more had left messages of condolence on RIP.ie, Fr Carroll said.
“A life doesn’t have to be long and famous to touch a great number of people,” he said.
Annemarie had three lovely boys, Pat, Ned and Tom, who she loved so much, he said.
Those three boys must be helped to always remember their mother, and her warmth and deep love for them, he told mourners.
She “loved her boys more than words can say” and that love goes with them, he said.
Annemarie was “also one for the fashion,” he said.
Offertory gifts to the altar included her Louis Vuitton handbag and White Diamond perfume, he noted.
A can of Red Bull, a Bible, a crucifix and a photograph of her were also brought to the altar.
“These simple things tell us more than words could ever do,” Fr Carroll said. “They tell of things that only Ms O’Reilly’s loved ones know about her.”
“Let us remember her not only in sorrow,” Fr Carroll said.
Women wore pink to Ms O’Reilly’s Requiem Mass, many with pink and black ribbons in their hair. Men wore black suits with white shirts.
A white coffin topped with pink lilies and roses held her body in the church. Pink ribbons were tied carefully to the coffin’s silver handles as the mother-of-three will be carried to her final resting place at St Kieran’s Cemetery.
Ms O’Reilly had lived on Hebron Road in Kilkenny before moving to Australia.
“Beloved and devoted mother of Pat, Ned and Tom,” her death notice on RIP.ie says.
“Annmarie will be dearly missed by her loving sons, parents Ned and Bridget, siblings Noreen, Edward, Paddy Wayne, Arthur Francis, Jimmy, Chantelle and Ellen, grandmother Ann, aunts and uncles, cousins, extended families and friends.
“May her gentle soul Rest in Peace.”