Enya McMurrough, 13, remembered as caring, talented, vivacious, and full of love

A photo of Enya McMurrough and a wreath in the colours of her beloved Cloughaneey Marching Band adorned a simple white coffin as the community came together to bid a sad farewell to the 13-year-old. 

Her heart-broken family, friends and bandmates gathered in Teach Pobail Chríost Rí, Gortahork on Thursday afternoon, February 6. The funeral Mass was celebrated against a backdrop of beautiful songs and instrumental pieces which reflected and honoured Enya’s deep love of music and the huge part it played in her life.

Mourners heard that only a week earlier, Enya Maria Celia McMurrough, of Ardsbeg, Gortahork, had set out happily for school as she did on every other day. 

She joined her fellow first years for morning classes at PCC Falcarragh, Fr Sean Ó Gallchóir said, but became unwell during PE. 

Two days later and surrounded by her beloved family, Enya passed away in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin.  

Predeceased by her grandparents Diarmuid and Celia, her uncle Dermí, Enya is survived by her parents Fionnuala and Shaun, brother Sean, grandparents Hughie and Kathleen, aunties, uncles, cousins, extended family and friends.

Enya’s father Shaun expressed the family’s gratitude to everyone who had assisted his daughter. 

“I would just like to thank people on behalf of myself, Fionnuala, and Seán, for our little princess Enya," he said.

"She was my princess. I never hid it; everybody knew it. She wasn’t shy of it, and that’s what she was to me, Fionnuala, and Seán, she was our princess.”

He thanked those who helped Enya at school, the doctors in the local surgery, the paramedics and the team at the A&E. 

“All the doctors, they worked so hard, she fought so hard, she fought for her life in there and the doctor fought so well, and it was just out of their hands, our hands and everyone’s hands,” he said. 

“The final words that Enya said to myself and Fionnuala in there, when all the doctors were helping her, she said, ‘Mammy, Daddy, this is crazy,’ and ‘I love yous.’

“She didn’t say she was scared; she wasn’t scared. She just said to us, ‘I love yous’ and we held her hand, and that was the last words our little princess said to us.

“She went to Dublin fighting for her life. All the surgeons in Dublin did their best. We know it. We know what they done, they gave us that extra few days with Enya just to prepare for what was coming.”

Shaun said he had heard many wonderful stories about his daughter in the days following her untimely death. 

“We always knew she was kind and she was loving,” he said “She always talked about everybody - her friends, her school, everybody.

“I’ve talked to her friends in the last few days, all her bandmates, her dancing mates, her football mates, and I’ve told them, ‘Never be scared, because she is always going to be there. She is with yous when yous are going into these arenas, into football games, she will be on the sidelines, shouting and roaring, and to make sure that you have done it right, because whatever she done, she done it 100%, she gave it everything’.”

Shaun spoke about how important music had been in Enya’s life.

“Her music was her world,” he said. “She used to sit down in the room playing the music. I’d be up on the sofa watching the tv, and not once - I have no regrets - not once did I ever say ‘will you close that door and shut that thing up.’ I loved her playing her music.”

He said that she had brought so much joy into their lives, and there had been a very special trip planned with a view to making memories. 

“The four of us were going to Glasgow, over to a Celtic game,” said Shaun. “It was going to be our first game, Sean’s first game. 

“She bought a new top for going to the match and she was going to get it signed, and it was all about making memories for Granda and all of us, that she was always a big part of everybody’s life.

“Celtic Park is called Paradise, and we always called it Paradise. But Enya’s gone to a different Paradise.”

Fr Ó Gallchóir said the community had been shocked and stunned by what happened, and he urged mourners to follow the example of Enya’s grieving family. 

“All of us are battling with a vast range of emotions, shock and sorrow, anger and acceptance, disbelief and bewilderment, gratitude, grief, support, and empathy, sympathy, faith, and a failure to comprehend and understand what’s been happening,” he said. 

“So many pupils, so many of you have said the last week, and it’s only a week, that this is hard, that this is cruel, that this seems to be unfair, senseless, absurd. So many of you have asked, ‘Why was this little girl, this little flower in full bloom, plucked from us?’

“You as a community grappled with major mind-boggling questions.

“The medical people will have their answers as time goes by.

“Fionnuala and Shaun have shown all of us great strength, great fortitude, great faith, great acceptance.”

The celebrant recalled the many times that Enya and her family had been before the same altar in Teach Pobail Chríost Rí. 

“This is a very sacred spot,” he said. “It was here that Shaun and Fionnuala stood on the third of September, 2010, as they committed themselves one to another, the beginning of their married lives. 

“It was here, where they are now, a year and a bit later, January 2012, that Enya took the front seat, and the whole centre of attention for the first time as she became a Christian, baptised in the Chirstian community. 

“It was here, in August 2020 that she herself stood, and she received the Lord in Holy Communion, in those Covid days, dire days, when we couldn’t have the Holy Communion for all the schools. 

“And it was just here that she stood in May of last year, 2024, and she was anointed by Fr Donoghue and received the fullness of God’s spirit in Confirmation. 

“And so she comes again today to the same spot, as her earthly journey ends.”

Mourners were reminded that the family had moved to Canada for a time, but had returned, and Enya had settled well into Derryconnor school.

Fr Ó Gallchóir said: “From the word go, this new girl was lively and vivacious, and precocious, and pleasant, and outgoing, extrovert, always bubbly, so loveable, so friendly, so feisty, caring, cheerful, chatty, so positive, so popular, always full of zeal and full of zest, full of enthusiasm, full of sparkle, with a lovely personality, pleasant, with many, many gifts, many, many, many talents, a great talker.

“When we used to prepare here for First Holy Communion on Saturday nights, sometimes it is hard to give jobs for everyone. Some people don’t want to do them, but that certainly wasn’t Enya’s case. She would do everything - she would read, she would do the Prayers of the Faithful, she would bring up the Offerteries, she would say Mass if she was allowed!”

Enya progressed to PCC Falcarragh, and had settled in well. 

The priest spoke of how Shaun and Fionnuala did everything that they could for both of their children, bringing them to various sporting activities, and in Enya’s case, dancing and band practice. 

“And at home, she was showered with love day after day,” he said. 

“She had her own beloved room in the house where she learned her guitar, where she danced her dance steps, where she did her homework, where she practiced and practiced, where she TikToked away and WhatsApped away, and all the other thingummyjigs that are going on in today’s life. 

“She loved that room where she was so much at home and so comfortable, and she loved to sit outside the front door and look out, and at young age appreciate so much, all that was beautiful in front of her, the sun setting, the rainbow in the sky, the marvelous view from the house, the whole Cloughaneely landscape

“Extra curricular activities were a big part of her life, going to the football, going to the dancing lessons.

“But especially in the band. She was a very talented musician and she learned her piano, and piano accordion, button accordion, tin whistle, whatever instrument you gave her, and she learned it easily, and was a very important member of the band as they have shown spectacularly in the last couple of days.”

The band had played at Disneyland Paris, and had won national titles in Wexford and Mullingar recently.

Speaking of Monday evening when Enya’s remains were brought home from Dublin, Fr Ó Gallchóir said: “She had come home before and she had been welcomed before when she won Ulsters and won All Irelands with the band. But Monday night was different as thousands lined the pathways and the streets from the mountain top to Ardsbeg. 

“It was a mighty expression of sadness and of sorrow, of solidarity and of support, of loyalty and of love, of gratitude and of grief. It was a mighty affirmation of the preciousness and value of life, and the great pain of parting and of death. 

“This was a community saying ‘we are with you’.”

While offering support to Enya’s extended family, the priest also had a special mention for the younger mourners.

“It is a very heavy cross for PCC who came together on the 13th of November to say farewell to their beloved teacher Shane Gillespie, and come together today to say farewell to little Enya, first year pupil,” he said.

“It is a big cross for all the other organisations of which she was a part, and especially for the band here, they come to say farewell to one of their most loved and talented and promising members.”

He urged them to be thankful for Enya and for their memories  of her. 

“I hope and pray that all of you value life, value your own lives and value the lives of all those who are about you, that all of you realise that life is very very precious,” he said. 

“Sometimes we don't realise it until we lose it. So we hope and pray that all of you care for one another, look out for one another and look after one another. Don’t let the petty jealousies and rivalries of life infringe on your love for one another, and love your parents.

“And use your talents as Enya used hers so wonderfully and try to continue Enya’s work.”