Newtown prepared for funeral of Private Seán Rooney

The sound of gunfire, amid a huge military presence, will puncture sombre silence in Newtowncunningham, where fallen soldier Private Seán Rooney, will be buried on Thursday afternoon.

The 24-year-old became the 88th entrant into the Óglaigh na hÉireann Roll of Honour when he was tragically killed in Lebanon last Wednesday night.

The President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, will be in attendance as Private Rooney, a native of Dundalk who lived in Newtown for the last decade, is buried with full military honours.

Defence Forces Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Seán Clancy, will lead hundreds of military personnel at the burial, which will follow 9am Funeral Mass at the Church of The Holy Family in Dundalk.

Company Commander of 121 Irish Battalion Recce Company, Commander Brian Connolly, who accompanied Private Rooney on the Irish Air Corps CASA aircraft flight from Beiruit, will also be in Newtown.

The plane touched down at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel just after 8.30am on Monday. Grieving relatives, including the heroic soldier's mother, Natasha McCloskey, who lives in Newtown, and his fiancée, Holly McConnellogue – who he was due to marry next August – received his body.

The commanding officer of the 27th Infantry Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Coakley, will head up a large military deputation from Dundalk that will accompany Private Rooney on his final journey.   

Members of the 27th Infantry Battalion, with whom Private Rooney was based at Aiken Barracks in Dundalk, will act as pall bearers and also make up the bearer party.

On arrival to Newtown - it is estimated that the time of arrival will be around 3.30pm - Private Rooney's coffin will be transferred from the hearse and placed on an Irish Army gun carriage.

The cortège, led by the Army No.1 band and flanked by an escort of honour, will travel around 800 metres, along the N13 and into the graveyard at the Church of the All Saints.

The Church, uniquely shaped in the image of the Barque of St Peter, will provide the backdrop as Private Rooney is laid to rest.

A firing party, also comprised of soldiers from the 27th Infantry Battalion, will perform a three-volley gun salute at the graveside before Private Rooney's coffin is lowered. The Last Post and the Reveille will be also be played at the graveside.

The white coffin, draped in a 9ft x 4.5ft Irish tricolour, will be adorned by Private Rooney's beret and service dress belt as it makes its way to his place of rest.

On Sunday night, Private Rooney was posthumously awarded the United Nations UNIFIL Peacekeeping Medal, while the Lebanese Army awarded three medals: a War Medal; a Wounded Medal; and an Appreciation Medal, Bronze Degree.

Three separate investigations are underway in a bid to piece together the events that led to the death of Private Rooney; one led by the UN, another by the Defence Forces and the other by the Lebanese government.

The investigation of the Defence Forces is being supported by An Garda Siochana. Two detectives from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and another from the Garda Technical Bureau, a ballistics expert, have travelled to Lebanon.

Private Rooney, who was on his second deployment to Lebanon, was travelling as part of a convoy of two armoured utility vehicles in the Al-Aqbieh area of south Lebanon.

The vehicles were travelling from UN Camp Shamrock to Beirut Airport with two of the party returning home on compassionate grounds.

Private Rooney's vehicle was surrounded and came under fire at around 9.15pm Irish time after entering an area controlled by Hezbollah, with the Iranian-linked Shia militia group denying involvement in the incident.

Bullets rained on the vehicle and Private Rooney was fatally wounded after being shot in the head.

His colleague, Trooper Shane Kearney, a 22-year-old from Cork, suffered blunt force trauma injuries and was flown back to Ireland on Wednesday and transferred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin for further treatment.

Two other soldiers, who were in the convoy, received treatment for non-life-threatening injuries.