Teenage scrambler accident victim 'seized every hour that God gave him' funeral is told
A boy who died in a scrambler accident embodied the phrase “seize the day”.
The was one of the tributes paid to 16-year-old Connor Magee Campbell by Canon Benedict Fee at his funeral today in St Patrick’s Church in Clonoe, east Tyrone, following his death last Thursday.
He died after being taken to hospital following a collision between the scrambler he was riding and a lorry in the Derryloughan Road area.
He was one of three people from the Province to die within days as a result of seperate vehicle crashes.
"Connor was liked, because he was he was fun and he was kind,” said the priest.
He recalled the Latin phrase “carpe diem”, and said: “It means to grasp, seize the day, and Connor was that kind of a fella.
"He seized every hour that God gave him.”
A selection of items before the altar including a scrambler helmet (which he was wearing at the time of the crash) “speaks loudly” of the “vivacity” of Connor’s “all too short life”.
Connor boxed and played GAA with Clonoe O’Rahilly’s, and a number of mourners at the funeral wore the club’s shirt.
His mother Kayleigh Magee had died last May, and Connor “had learned to live with his terrible loss and was going forward”.
He “loved the wheels” and “lived to be a mechanic”.
Canon Fee added that “I think the Lord should have put wheels on Connor's feet – he'd have been much happier, wouldn't he?”
Amid this tragedy “we dare to hope” the priest said, adding: "We have come to this chapel – we didn't go straight to the cemetery.
"We come in here under the sign of the cross, the great sign of God's love and mercy for us all…
"Our homeland is in heaven.
"We're not about this world.”
He went on to add: “No accidents can hurt him anymore.
"He can ride the scrambler to all over the hills and the dales and the hills and ups and downs of heaven to his heart's content and be safe.”
His father Brian told the mourners: “May you continue to inspire us to enter each day with a generous heart, to serve the call of courage and love, until we see your beautiful face again, in that land where there is no more separation, where all the tears would be wiped from our lives, and where we will never lose you again.”
Interment followed afterwards in the cemetery adjoining the chapel.
Connor’s death notice described him as “beloved son of Brian and Megan Campbell and the late Kayleigh Magee RIP”, and the “much loved brother of Michael, Daniel and Paudi”.
On Friday, the day after Connor’s crash, 45-year-old Damien Bintley of Holywood died when his car collided with a lorry on the Crossowen Road in Clogher.
His funeral is at St Colmcille’s Church, Holywood, on Monday, August 10, at noon.
And on Sunday Ronan King, in his 20s and from Lurgan, died as a result of a car accident near Pettigo in Co Donegal.