Carlow locals attend funeral after heartfelt plea from funeral director

Crowds have gathered in Carlow to attend the funeral of a local woman who recently passed away, following a heartfelt plea from her funeral director.

This morning (December 3), mourners flocked to Askea Church in Co. Carlow to honour the life of Mary Regan.

Mary, who was originally from Cork and was in her eighties, “died in wonderful care” of Hillview Nursing Home last Friday. The support for her funeral was initially sparked by Mary’s funeral director, Rory Healy, who made a touching appeal on social media for locals to pay tribute to her.

Yesterday evening, Rory took to Facebook to explain that, at the time of her passing, Mary had no surviving family members.

"Unfortunately, since the passing of Mary’s partner just over a year ago she has had no next of kin and also didn’t have many visitors to her in the nursing home, only the great care and attention shown by the staff of Hillview,” he detailed.

"Mary lived in Carlow happily for a number of years and will tomorrow return to her native West Cork to be laid to rest with the members of her family that have gone before her,” he continued.

Pleading with locals to find a “spare 45 mins” to attend Mary’s funeral, Rory penned: "It would be great to see that a lady who lived to be nearly 90 years will get a farewell from her adopted town of Carlow by the people of Carlow.”

He concluded: "Let’s not send Mary off from Carlow alone.”

Many users later began to re-share the public plea on social media, and several took to Facebook to praise funeral director Rory for his kindness.

"This is a lovely gesture, shows your compassion and empathy Rory. I hope Mary gets the send off she deserves, may she rest in peace,” one person wrote.

“Mary was my friend for a long time, I have visited her on many occasions. I will be attending her funeral tomorrow. Rest in peace dear friend,” another added.