Young woman killed in collision ‘lived life to the full’

Aoife is the daughter of Jarlath Tinnelly, an independent councillor on Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.

Mourners at the funeral of 24-year-old nursery worker Aoife Tinnelly have heard how her life was cut “heartbrakenly short” following a road traffic collision on Monday evening.

Emergency services attended the scene after a collision involving a white Audi A1 and a blue Mercedes-Benz on the Newry Road in Kilkeel shortly before 6:30 pm on 20th April. Aoife was sadly pronounced dead at the scene, and two other people were taken to the hospital for treatment.

Aoife is the daughter of Jarlath Tinnelly, an independent councillor on Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.

Addressing those gathered at St Colman’s Church in Massforth, the priest said that “words feel absolutely and completely insufficient and inadequate.”

“A sudden loss, especially one so tragic, leaves us searching for answers that do not come easily and we may ask why. Let me sit with a silence that can feel empty, If not unbearable and yet even here in our sadness and grief, We are not without meaning, nor without hope,” he said.

“But of course, in moments like these, it is so natural to search for meaning, for reasons, for something that might make this dreadful loss feel less difficult and chaotic. But sometimes there are no easy answers that will ever satisfy. Sometimes the most honest thing we can say is that this is deeply undeserved, deeply unfair, and God knows, deeply painful.”

He added: “In Aoife’s 24 years with us, she brought something very special into this world that did not exist before her. Her personality, her warmth, her presence, her way of loving, her way of living, life to the full and her way of being known. Those things do not for a moment disappear in that accident.

“Surely they would remain woven into the lives of everyone Aoife touched, and God knows, she touched so, so many people.

“Aoife’s life, though brief in years in the bigger scheme of things, was definitely not small by any means and a life is not measured only in years, but in love given and received, in laughter shared, in kindness shown and in the imprint left on others. By that measure, thankfully, we all know Aoife lived life to the full.”

Aoife is survived by her parents Brenda and Jarlath and siblings Daire, Odhran and Maisie.

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