POLICE TRAGEDY: Tears of grief instead of anniversary joy
The flowers were right, but the words were wrong.
They should have said: To Keni from Andrea, with all my love on our fourth anniversary.
But instead, the cards which came with the flowers for Constable Kenneth Irvine yesterday said In Loving Memory and Rest in Peace.
It was a day when he should have clocked off from the job at BE Aerospace which had just been made permanent last week, left little Callum with the babysitter and taken his wife Andrea out somewhere nice for their wedding anniversary.
Somewhere like the Buck's Head or the Mourne Seafood Bar down the road in Dundrum, for a steak or a plate of scallops with pasta and a glass of wine.
The talk might have turned to the death of their infant son Joshua, and they might have wondered to themselves if it was time to think of a little brother or sister for Callum.
But yesterday, as the clock struck two and the cortege made its way slowly through Kilkeel, past shuttered shops and bowed heads, the look on Andrea Irvine's face as she pushed the pram containing six-month-old Callum was of a woman who had used up all her should haves and if onlys over the past few days.
And who still could not believe that in a few brief seconds in the small hours of Sunday morning, she had gone from being a wife to a widow with an orphaned son.
As two rooks soared lazily overhead under a sky dithering between sunshine and rain, the hearse stopped in front of the town's Presbyterian church, and six colleagues of Kenny Irvine lifted out a coffin with his police cap and gun club jacket sitting on top.
Behind it was a crowd so large it took a full 15 minutes to file into the church, among them Chief Constable Sir Huge Orde, Assistant Chief Constables Judith Gillespie and Duncan McCausland, Chief Superintendent Alan McCrum, and DUP Assemblymen Jim Wells and Jimmy Spratt, former chairman of the Police Federation.
As they filed in, they passed two posters saying Praise God for the Harvest, and All God's Gifts are sent from Heaven above, although just at that moment it may have been difficult to see how: a theme touched on by the Rev Stephen Johnston later in his address, although he began by looking back at the life of the part-time policeman whose days were cut so cruelly short at the age of 31.
"To quote a former BB captain: 'Kenny was dedicated, determined, all you would want in a young lad.
"He gave his best of everything. He leaves an example for others to follow'."
The minister talked about how Kenny was very involved "at the heart of this community".
"A member for some years of the Pride of Ballinran Band; treasurer of Ballyvea Lodge; Master of Ballymartin Black, a founding member, along with his brother Stephen and future father-in-law Sandy, of the Ballyvea Gun Club and also a founding member of the Ballyvea Rural Development Association."
Mr Johnston went on: "He had only been a part-time member of the PSNI for a couple of years, but it was a work that he really enjoyed.
"He wanted to do his bit in making the community a better place, a safer place, and he with his colleagues in the early hours of Sunday died doing their duty serving their community. Again, what an example they are to us all."
The minister said that the family had asked him to thank all those who tried to help at the accident scene, and to thank all those who have shown their support in an overwhelming manner.
It was an address finely balanced between questions and comfort.
And yesterday afternoon, as a widow stood with her orphaned son by a grave in the gathering gloom, then made her way down the street and turned the key into an empty home where this time last week she had been looking forward to their wedding anniversary, she must have wondered when the questions would end, and the hope of comfort begin.
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
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