Hundreds of people have attended the funeral mass in Limerick of 20-year-old Gussie Shanahan, who had been missing for 18 years and whose remains were only identified just over two weeks ago.
Relatives, friends and neighbours gathered at the Church of the Holy Rosary on the Ennis Road in Limerick city today to support his father Bob, his brother Roibeard, and sisters Grainne and Reiltin for a service to say farewell to Gussie.
Members of the gardaí, along with members of the LImerick search and rescue teams who had carried out extensive searches for the missing man, also attended.
Aengus Shanahan, known as Gussie to his family and friends, went missing on February 11 2000 after he had been out socialising with friends in Limerick city that night. He walked down a lane off O'Connell Avenue and vanished.
DNA analysis of partial human remains found in the River Shannon near Bunratty one year later were identified two weeks ago as those of the young missing Limerick man.
His relative, Fr Aquinas Duffy, who concelebrated the mass along with priests from the nearby parishes of Caherdavin and Parteen in Co Clare, said they had gathered in gratitude to celebrate the funeral of Gussie after almost two decades.
Fr Duffy said it had been a long 18 years of waiting and searching, of making appeals and false hope. He said the searching is now at an end.
He said people must never give up hope, even as the years go by, particularly families who are still searching for loved ones who are missing.
Gussie's brother Roibeard said the family wanted to remember him for more than the young man in his missing person poster, and to erase the negatives of the sorrow and sadness which had surrounded him for the past 18 years.
He said his baby brother had a big heart, was loyal and good-natured, and would never be forgotten. A video, showing photos of Gussie's life set to an Ed Sheeran song with the lyrics, "wait for me to come home", was applauded at the end of mass.
Gussie Shanahan was buried later during a private family ceremony at Castlemungret cemetery alongside his mother Nancy, who died two years ago never knowing what happened to her son.
Meanwhile the Garda investigation into his disappearance is ongoing as they continue to try and find out what happened to him over 18 years ago.
