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Friday February 17, 2012

BY GEORGIA GRAHAM

HUNDREDS gathered in Gospel Oak this morning (Friday) for the funeral 16-year-old Melanie McCarthy who was shot in the head last week in Dublin.

The Queen's Crescent teenager was remembered with flower arrangements showing her with boyfriend Christopher, her beloved Blackberry phone and Chanel lipstick.

Everything was pink in memory of Melanie, who was known as 'Barbie' to friends and family. Her pink coffin was carried out of the packed church and placed into a waiting a glass carriage drawn by four white horses with pink feathers in their hair.

Traffic was stopped along Malden Road as the procession of horse drawn carriage, Barbie Pink and white cars made their way to the ever growing shrine on the Allcroft Road, the street she grew up on.

Father Peter Harries said there was "bewilderment" in the close-knit community around St Dominic's Church in Southampton Road as one of their most popular teenagers being killed "so pointlessly, so needlessly."

He added: "This was Melanie’s church. Only a few years ago she celebrated her Holy Communion in this church with her family and she planned to marry her beloved Christopher."

A full report of the funeral and tribute to Melanie McCarthy will appear in Thursday's New Journal.

Melanie McCarthy McNamara's funeral in Gospel Oak