All morning, within the small, close-knit Co Kilkenny village of Mooncoin, everybody was asking one another the identical query. “Are you coming as much as Vicky Kelly’s?”
Vicky Phelan might need grown as much as develop into – as her sister Lynsey proudly recalled – “a fearless warrior” and “the nation’s treasure”, a lady on a mission, at all times in search of solutions and afraid of nobody. However on Sunday afternoon, at a memorial celebration held within the place the place she grew up amongst those that knew her greatest, she was merely Vicky Kelly: an adored mam and spouse, beloved massive sister, fun-loving aunt and godmother, lifelong greatest pal, aggressive rounders participant, devoted Bros fan. The lady with an “insane chortle” and sharp intelligence, who turned a lady unwilling to take no for a solution and, tragically, not sufficient time.
“Time is one thing Vicky received each single drop out of,” her youthful brother Jonnie stated in an emotional tribute. She died at Milford Hospice in Limerick two weeks in the past on the age of 48, having been identified with cervical most cancers in 2014.
Jonnie was one in all three siblings who participated within the service, alongside along with her sister Lyndsey and brother Lee, buddies from totally different levels of her life, fellow CervicalCheck campaigners Stephen Teape and Lorraine Walshe, Mooncoin parish priest Father Martin Tobin and several other nieces and nephews who introduced items to the altar or spoke about their reminiscences of their auntie Vicky. There have been additionally evocative musical performances by Bressie, The Gorgeous and Mount Sion choir, watched from the entrance pews by her husband Jim, youngsters Amelia and Darragh and her mother and father John and Gaby. Her brother Robbie joined by way of the live-stream from his dwelling in New Zealand. Charlie Fowl and his spouse Claire had been amongst those that gathered for this last farewell to a lady remembered by her pal David Brennan as “essentially the most inspirational individual we’ve got ever recognized. We’ll keep in mind every part Vicky has finished for the ladies of Eire.”
For the celebration, which she had deliberate herself, Vicky didn’t need “disappointment and despair, she needed color, she needed music, she needed fond reminiscences,” David stated. And he or she received all of that. However inevitably the tears flowed freely too.
Steve Wall from The Gorgeous was compelled to sing along with his eyes closed. “I don’t usually sing with my eyes closed however on this event I’ll, as a result of if I see anybody’s tears it should set me off.”
“Vicky was pretty much as good because it will get,” Johnny stated in an emotional tribute. He recalled with perceptible satisfaction her dedication to succeed and “her need to develop into one thing extra. She made each minute matter. It’s was stated she was the perfect President we by no means had, however I consider Vicky may have been a lot greater than that.”
The one factor he and his household may take solace in was that “a nation of individuals received to witness the awe that I witnessed as a lad. A nation received to like a lady as a lot as our household liked her.”
On the finish of the service, the congregation rose to their ft for one final standing ovation to Vicky and her youngsters Darragh, and Amelia. “She fought so exhausting as a result of she fought for you,” Jonnie instructed his niece and nephew. Outdoors the church, because the wind howled and the sunshine started to fade, the applause rang out by way of an in any other case silent village, shrouded in equal elements satisfaction and grief.