Rory mourned

[caption id="attachment_70820" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Rory Staunton was mourned on both sides of the Atlantic this past week. "]

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A young boy who had precious few years to make his mark on this world, but clearly did, was mourned on both sides of the Atlantic this past week.

Rory Staunton, son of Orlaith and Ciaran, brother of Kathleen, was eulogized at a memorial service at St. Mary's Winfield Church in Woodside, Queens on Holy Thursday.

It was an extraordinary event, its profound sadness matched by the massive outpouring of emotion and support for the Staunton family from a community that could scarcely believe that a 12-year-old boy could die from an infection caused by a cut sustained during a basketball game.

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The Queens gathering drew people from across the Irish and Irish American community. Mourners traveled from Ireland and the U.S. West Coast to be with Rory's family.

The huge congregation included Congressman Joe Crowley and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. It included many who have been in the front lines of the immigration reform campaign, Rory's father, Ciaran, being the most public voice of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform.

Despite what had to have been a near unbearable burden, Ciaran was among the many who spoke movingly of Rory from the altar. Another was his uncle, the publisher Niall O'Dowd.

Rory was flown to Ireland on Good Friday for burial, his funeral taking place Monday under an Irish sky that was as gray as the New York was blue just a few days before.

The funeral Mass, in Drogheda, was attended by, among many others, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and the North's deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness.

The political turnout was in its own way fitting because, as the New York congregation had been told, Rory had an interest in politics and world affairs way beyond years, his far too few years.

 

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