Slain mother Celine Cawley was laid to rest as her husband appeared in court in connection with her killing.

Huge crowds attended a requiem mass for the successful businesswoman, who was found dead outside her Howth home eight days ago.

Among the mourners were her daughter Georgia and grieving father, James Cawley, who lost his wife, Brenda, just over a year ago.

He previously buried another daughter, Barbara, who died following an illness. By 11am mourners were already packing into the Church of the Assumption in Howth just a mile away from the house where the production company founder lost her life.

Seven priests celebrated a moving mass which touched on several aspects of Celine’s personality. And the vast carpet of flowers that adorned the altar bore testament to the high esteem in which she was held.

It was shortly after 12.10pm when the sleek black hearse bearing the light oak coffin arrived at the church. It was then borne in through the doors by Celine’s brother Chris and other male relatives.

Wept

Immediately behind them a heartbroken James Cawley wept openly as he followed his daughter’s remains into the building.

Celebrating the mass, Fr Ciaran O’Carroll – a close family friend – told mourners that they were there to give thanks for Celine’s life.

Huge crowds from the Howth area, as well as a number of prominent figures from the entertainment and advertising industry, filed into the church to listen to the moving ceremony. Such was the crowd the overflow spilled out into the court yard.

Mourners listened to a reading from St Paul to the Romans as they were told: “The life and death of each of us has its influence on others.”

That influence was keenly felt by chief celebrant O’Car

roll, who told the congregation: “I have had the privilege of being with the Cawley family on many happy occasions over the years and I have had the duty of being with them on a number of sad occasions.

“Today I have the task of being with them on this most tragic of days.”

He said that Celine’s death had come in the days leading up to the winter solstice, a time when our ancestors were forced to deal with the long dark nights.

Warmth

And he said Celine’s tragic passing would give each and every one of her family cause to think of life as a journey.

Speaking with obvious warmth about his friend, he described Celine as a woman of great honesty and loyalty.

He said she was a woman of great dynamism and love of family. Prayers of the faithful were then read by four of 16-year-old daughter Georgia's classmates from Sutton Park school. Next, to the haunting strains of the Christmas classic Oh Holy Night, three family members brought up the gifts.

- Aoife Finneran