The funeral has taken place in NewcastleWest in Co Limerick of 12-year-old Wiktor Chojecki, who died in a road crash last Friday.
The mass was concelebrated in both English and Polish by Fr Frank Duhig of the NewcastleWest parish, Fr Krzysztof Tyburowski, chaplin to the Polish community in the Limerick diocese, and by Fr Dan Neenan from Adare, who blessed Wiktor's body at the scene of the crash.
Fr Duhig welcomed Wiktor's family, his mother Eva and father Bart, sister Julia and his godparents and
relatives who had travelled from Poland to support them at this sad time.
He said that since Wiktor's death, he has heard repeatedly about his kindness, a christian virtue which made him a child of God.
Fr Tyburowski said they thanked God for their young friend's life and prayed for his happiness in eternity as they now bid farewell to him.
The choir from Wiktor's secondary school - Scoil Mhuire agus Ide - sang at the mass and prayers were said by his relatives and school teachers.
In a picture tribute to the young boy given to mass goers the words of the poem 'Afterglow' were written:
I'd like the memory of me to be a happy one.
I'd like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done
I'd like to leave an echo whispering down the ways,
of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days.
I'd like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun; of happy memories I leave when life is done.
Wiktor was buried at Calvary cemetery in NewcastleWest following his funeral mass.
