{"id":305619,"date":"2026-02-19T06:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/305619\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T06:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:27:09","slug":"nurse-killed-in-limerick-crash-had-incredible-caring-nature-funeral-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/305619\/","title":{"rendered":"Nurse killed in Limerick crash had \u2018incredible caring nature\u2019, funeral hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman killed in a road crash in Co Limerick<\/a> last week has been remembered as a \u201cbrilliant\u201d nurse who spent her life putting others before herself.<\/p>\n

\u00c1ine O\u2019Reilly, from Pallasgreen, was described during her funeral Mass as a \u201cwarm\u201d and \u201cindependent\u201d person who loved comedy, current affairs and animals.<\/p>\n

A large crowd gathered on Wednesday morning at St John the Baptist Church in Nicker, including some of \u00c1ine O\u2019Reilly\u2019s former nursing colleagues, who had travelled from London to attend.<\/p>\n

A guard of honour of people in high-visibility vests from ShannonDoc, \u00c1ine O\u2019Reilly\u2019s employer, was formed outside the church.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old was fatally injured last Friday night when she was involved in a three-car collision as she drove to work<\/a> in Limerick city. The crash, which happened on the N24 near Grange West, Boher, left another motorist injured. A third person fled the scene.<\/p>\n

Parish priest Fr T\u00f3mas O\u2019Connell said \u00c1ine O\u2019Reilly\u2019s family had been dealt an \u201cunbelievable blow\u201d, with a young woman taken \u201cin such a heartbreaking way\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his eulogy, Eoin O\u2019Reilly described his sister as a \u201cwarm\u201d person who carried herself with \u201celegance and poise\u201d. She loved music, current affairs, cooking and travel, and to laugh, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeneath all that, there was a strength and a resilience which I could never truly understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MournersMourners gathered at St John the Baptist Church in Nicker, Co Limerick on Wednesday for the funeral Mass of \u00c1ine O’Reilly. Photograph: Niall Carson\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

He said his sister had an \u201cincredible caring nature\u201d and was \u201ca brilliant nurse\u201d who also \u201cadored\u201d animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerations of family pets in our house will never know how good they had it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He thanked people who had reached out to their family, prayed for them or expressed their condolences in recent days \u2013 and said his \u201clittle sister\u201d would always be with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne crumb of comfort I have is that in her last moments with us on this earth, before the lights went out, she was in her car, listening to her music \u2013 singing along, of course \u2013 going to a job she was [meant to do], looking forward to the next new exciting chapter. Independent, free and happy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSleep well, little sister.\u201d<\/p>\n

The priest said the community had gathered in prayer, grief and shock to be with the O\u2019Reilly family. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u00c1ine, indeed, was a person who gave. She gave to her family, gave to her community, her work colleagues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Áine\u00c1ine O’Reilly’s coffin is carried into St John the Baptist Church in Nicker, Co Limerick on Wednesday. Photograph: Niall Carson\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

\u201cHer life was one of putting herself [after] others, and it is so tragic that in the twinkling of an eye, that life of giving was taken from her so tragically last Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that as the community heard the news, \u201cnothing else was spoken about in the whole place\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a palpable silence here, as the huge cloud of gloom \u2013 is all I would call it \u2013 had well and truly settled over this area, if not indeed the entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00c1ine O\u2019Reilly is survived by her parents, Ann and Eugene, who lit a candle at the start of the Mass, and brothers Eoin, James and Conor. \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman killed in a road crash in Co Limerick last week has been remembered as a \u201cbrilliant\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,1396,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-305619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-limerick","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}