A “MIGHTY” Irish missionary murdered in Kenya this month was laid to rest in his beloved Co Limerick yesterday.The snow-dusted village of Athea was the backdrop for Fr Jeremiah Roche’s final journey to Holy Cross cemetery, a stark contrast to the scorched earth of Kenya where the 68-year-old priest worked for more than four decades.
The well known Kiltegan priest was stabbed to death at his home on the outskirts of Kericho, Kenya, about 200km west of Nairobi, on December 10th.
Kenyan police have arrested one person suspected of being behind the murder, which occurred during a break-in at Fr Roche’s home.
More than 50 priests, including Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien from Edinburgh and Bishop of Kerry Bill Murphy, joined Fr Roche’s family and hundreds of mourners at St Bartholomew’s church in Athea for the funeral Mass.
President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Brian Cowen, who offered their personal condolences to the Roche family last week, were represented by their aides de camp.
In a tribute to his love of Irish music, members of the late Kiltegan priest’s family did the Siege of Ennis as his coffin arrived at the church.
The fourth youngest in a family of 11, Fr Roche was waked at his sister Nora Cunningham’s home on Saturday night.
All of his siblings – some of whom live in America – attended the funeral Mass, while a webcam in the church linked friends and relatives in Chicago and New York.
Chief celebrant Fr Liam Blayney celebrated the Mass where mourners were reminded of a man whose life was dedicated to helping the poor in Kenya.
Fr Roche was buried following the funeral Mass in the nearby Holy Cross cemetery on Athea alongside his parents Edmund and Mary Roche (nee Dalton).
He is survived by sisters Kit, Mary Ann, Eileen, Nora, Hannah and Margaret, and brothers Patrick, Noel, Christy, and Michael.
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