A young woman killed in a crash in Co Fermanagh had recently discovered she was to become a new mum, her funeral heard today.
Amy Stokes (20) died on Monday night after the accident near Derrylin.
She had married her husband Damien just three months earlier.
At her funeral in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, parish priest Fr Liam Kelly said that Amy was “happy, radiant and full of fun”.
Addressing mourners at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, he also made a plea for road safety after a series of Christmas tragedies across Ireland.
Recalling the events of last Monday, the priest explained how two lives were lost that night.
He described how the young couple had been “over the moon” at learning they were to become first-time parents.
“Just three and a half months ago, on September 18 2024, I had the privilege of officiating at the wedding of Amy Reilly and Damien Stokes,” he said.
“And if you look at the photograph of Amy beside the coffin, or at any of the photographs outside, you would see that she looked radiant, happy and beautiful on that day.
“Amy and Damien were besotted with one another. He meant the world to her, and she to him.
“And shortly before her death, they discovered that Amy was expecting a baby, and they were over the moon with joy, looking forward to becoming first time parents.
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“Sadly, it wasn’t to be. Two lives were lost on Monday night, and all of us feel lost today.”
Fr Kelly recalled how Amy was born at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda in 2004, the eldest child to her parents Brian and Bernadette.
Her early years were spent in Navan, Co Meath, before moving to Banbridge in Co Down aged 11, and later Ballyconnell.
He spoke warmly of Amy’s affection for her family, and her friends.
“Amy loved her parents greatly,” he said.
“She was a proper Daddy’s Girl and could wrap him around her little finger … Amy was very close to her mother too, and hardly a day went by when she didn’t go to her mother and say ‘mummy, I love you, can I have a hug.”
Fr Kelly also spoke of Amy’s love for her siblings.
“There was a great bond of love between them all,” he recalled.
“Amy had that lovely, outgoing personality. She was happy, radiant and full of fun.
“And she had a beautiful singing voice, and she was always good for a song.
“One of her favourite songs was the traditional folk song, Young Reilly the Fisherman, which was written about the mid-1800s and was recently re-recorded by Deirdre Connolly.
“Another song she sang was ‘There Were Roses’, a song written by Tommy Sands about young love being destroyed by trouble in the North simply because one of them was a Protestant and the other a Catholic.
“‘There Were Roses was one of her favourite songs and it is fitting that there are lovely red roses depicted on her white coffin here in the church today.
“Amy had the voice of an angel, and she’ll now join in the chorus with the angels in heaven.”
During the mass, recordings were played of Amy singing some of her favourite songs.
They included a recording she had performed for her husband, of Derek Ryan’s ‘Made of Gold’, beginning with the words ‘I can still remember, when I set my eyes on you’.
As the music echoed around the church, relatives touched her coffin, some overcome with emotion.
Amy was one of six people to die on Northern Ireland’s roads in as many days before Christmas.
Several other fatalities occurred in the Republic of Ireland too.
Appealing for safety on the roads, Fr Kelly added: “Far too many great people like Amy have lost their lives, and too many families are left at a loss – sad, numbed and grieving.”
As the coffin was taken from the church, Celine Dion’s hit The Power of Love was played.
Following the mass, Amy was laid to rest in Carrick-On-Shannon Cemetery.