A mother and her 10-year-old daughter who died in a crash in Co Cavan last week have been laid to rest.
The funeral of Nell Saffron Raven and her daughter Irena Raven Mereacre heard Irena gave the "gift of life" to four children who her organs were donated to.
Ms Raven and her daughter were involved in a collision between a car and a van on the R162 road at Corclare, Shercock in Cavan on 24 July.
Ms Raven died at the scene and Irena was airlifted to Temple Street Children's Hospital in Dublin where she died on Tuesday afternoon.
Ms Raven had recently celebrated becoming an Irish citizen.
Fr Sean McDermott told mourners at St Patrick's Church, Milltown that Irena, also known as Ira, was a bright, creative child who inherited her gifts for art and writing from her mother, who was a journalist and author.
Irena had achieved the dream of many a young child in Ireland by appearing on RTÉ’s Late Late Toy Show last Christmas, he told the funeral.
However, he said she was humble about being chosen, even if she could not resist the opportunity to joke with classmates about having to pay for her autograph.
Full of 'life and joy and fun'
Fr McDermott said she was shy when the family first moved to Milltown from the UK in 2019, but she soon became "a chatterbox" who was full of "life and joy and fun".
He said the family had opted to donate her organs following her death and had assisted four other children and their families.
Fr McDermott told mourners that Ms Raven was born in Wales in October 1973.
She met her first husband when they were both journalists with the Press Association in London.
A graduate of Oxford, with an MA in Creative Writing, she also spent three years living in Pakistan where she provided freelance copy to the Telegraph amongst other UK national newspapers.
Her daughters Eveline and Violet Elizabeth Kemp were born in Pakistan.
Ms Raven’s husband Alexandru Mereacre spoke about his "13-year love story" with his wife which began in Oxford in 2013.
They met when was working at the university and she was starting her career as a novelist. The couple married in October 2014.
Irena was born in Oxford in July 2016.
'This is where we belonged'
In 2019 the family of four moved to Ireland. He said that they fell in love with an old cottage in Milltown, renovated it and made it home.
"When Irena and Eveline joined Milltown school we knew that this was our place. This is where we belonged. We had a very happy life together.
"Nell raised the family, worked on her book, made new friends, restored the cottage, fought cancer and was the best wife I could wish for."
He said that Irena was a creative child who took up Irish dancing when she moved to this country. She had many gifts but "most importantly she learned how to be a kind sister, daughter and very good friend."
He said that Nell was the storyteller in their family who always had a thought to the beginning, middle and end.
He admitted that he was struggling to find meaning in their deaths.
"Is there any justice, or is there any meaning of what happened? I do not know.
"But perhaps, like in all stories, not just the beginning, or the middle, or the end but the whole story is all that matters."
He also read the Dylan Thomas poem 'Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night'.
