UNIVERSITY student, Caoimhe Gault (25), who died in Dundee the previous week, was laid to rest on Saturday last, in Enniskillen.
The community of Enniskillen and the wider student area of Dundee were left to mourn a tragic loss of life.
Back home, a large crowd attended the funeral Mass in St Michael’s Church, Enniskillen, which was followed by interment in Cross Cemetery.
Caoimhe had just graduated as a secretarial nurse from the University of Abertay and had been due to start a new job on Tuesday past.
A part-time model, she had previously taken part in the Top Model UK competition. She was a former pupil of both Mount Lourdes Grammar and Erne Integrated College. She leaves behind a heartbroken family, including her mother, Tara (Enniskillen) and her boyfriend, Paul.
In his homily, Fr O’Reilly paid tribute to Caoimhe, the first grandchild born into her family and told of how she held a special place in the hearts of her mother and grandparents.
Speaking to the Herald he explained what Caoimhe meant to her family.
“For Bernie, her grandfather, it was a new lease of life. He had finished working and was wondering what he would do and Caoimhe had given him a whole new lease of life. He brought her to school and listened to all her stories.”
Speaking about Caoimhe, he reflected on a, ‘very life giving person who had given so much joy to her family’.
“She was very much out-going, extrovert, she was the first one on the floor for dancing and celebrations. She was very much the athlete and was big into gymnastics and was very successful. She won local, national and International events, and she won one for Northern Ireland. She was also into horseback riding.”
Fr O’Reilly said the death was simply, ‘devastating’ for all the family and her boyfriend, Paul.
“It was so very tragic. For someone to go to bed healthy and then for this tragedy to happen to happen is just devastating, and that seemed to be it, this sudden death syndrome. It is very sad.
“She had her whole future ahead of her and a new job.”
Caoimhe’s mother, Tara who works in health and social care, took to social networking site Twitter to express her grief. In a series of Tweets, she spoke of her loss describing Caoimhe as, ‘her world’ and ‘the soul of her life’.
Former Principal of Erne Integrated College, Tom Noble paid tribute to a ‘lovely, vibrant, thoughtful, empathetic girl’. He said he was ‘shattered’ by the news.
“She was an absolutely lovely girl. The one thing I remember about her was she got an audition for ‘Hollyoaks’ while at the school. She went away and got down to the last five. She didn’t get the part there, but they were obviously very impressed.
“She was a very dedicated, hard working and serious student. She was extremely polite and popular with her peers. I was absolutely shocked when I found out.”
Investigations into the ‘unexplained’ death remain ongoing, with police still awaiting the results of a toxicology report.
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