‘She was the funniest, sweetest and most caring person I know’ – funeral hears heart-breaking tributes to young Louth cyclist killed in Dublin

Mourners packed into the Victorian Chapel at Mount Jerome Crematorium on Monday afternoon for a service that celebrated her life, full of music, poetry, happy memories and tears.

The twenty-two year old from Templetown, Cooley, had just finished her first year at IADT and started a job in film production with Peninsula Television, when her life was tragically cut short.

Her father Breffni fought back his tears as he recalled how his daughter had “packed so much into such a short time”.

"Greta was conceived in a lighthouse in May 2001, maybe the last person to be conceived in a lighthouse, she was born in the Ides of March 2002,” he said.

"From the start she was an easy going baby, such a smiler and could play peep-a-boo for hours,” he said.

After attending a nursey with Anne Hosford, she went to a small country school and by fifth class had decided religion was not for her and stayed at the back of the class reading, and declined confirmation.

"She was the kindest gentlest child,” he said, remembering how she would go up to other kids in the playground asking them to be friends..

"She was also headstrong and hated unfairness and injustice.”

He recalled how Greta learned to ride a horse, sail a boat and was a fantastic fearless skier.

She played hockey and rugby in Dundalk Grammar School, loved English and biology and used to rehabilitate wild animals, especially birds.

Film making and photography became her real passion and he knew she was going to be a fantastic filmmaker. They had travelled to Cannes where her “no eyebrow” phase had gone down well and she really came into her own when she started at IADT and met the love of her life, Charlie.

"They were so happy,” he said.

Greta had got a job with Peninsula TV and everything was going so well and he really thought that some day he’d be writing a very different speech with Charlie’s father.

Quoting WB Yeats, he said “Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.”

"And away she has gone and for Greta the weeping is now over She has left it for us to weep”.

Greta’s boyfriend Charlie paid a heart-breaking tribute to his partner, describing Greta as “the best thing that every happened to me. She was such a blessing.”

“I just wish we'd had more time together because our time together was so good.”

Her best friend Mia painting a picture of a fun and charismatic young woman as she recounted their schooldays in Dundalk Grammar School, adventures in the United States, when Greta turned heads with her cowboy hat and construction worker’s clothes and boots, and college nights out. She was also a loyal friend who “knew how to have fun and lift the mood and knew what you wanted to hear from a friend.”

“She was the funniest, sweetest and most caring person I know,” she said, adding that she will take comfort in knowing that they will never run out of stories about Greta.

"She loved us all so beautifully.”

Gretta is survived by her parents Breffni and Vanessa, sister, Ruth, brothers Jack and Louis, her cherished grandmother Nuala, her beloved partner Charlie and his parents Jo and Reece, aunts, uncles, cousins extended and friends. She was predeceased by her grandparents Brian, Claire and Augustin.

Greta’s family thanked the first responders and passers-by who attended to Greta and the staff of St Vincent’s Hospital, Quinn’s Funeral Home, the community in Cooley and her fellow students in college.

They have asked that donations be made to Safe Cycling Ireland in lieu of flowers.