THE Royal Irish soldier killed on a training exercise earlier this month was yesterday buried in his west Cork home town with full military honours.
Ranger Michael Maguire died during a live firing exercise at the Royal Armoured Corps range in Wales on May 2.
The 21-year-old had been in the Army for less than two years but had already completed a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
It is understood he was hit by a stray bullet.
Hundreds of mourners packed into the small chapel on a windswept Coomhala hillside with hundreds more listening outside.
Royal Irish pall bearers in ceremonial dress carried the coffin in and out of the church watched by the regiment’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Colin Weir, and several uniformed members of the Irish Defence Forces.
Many of Ranger Maguire’s friends and colleagues stood side-by-side with representatives of several veterans’ associations as a piper from 1 Royal Irish played a lament.
Speaking after the funeral, Lt Col Weir described his fallen comrade as “a deeply professional and likeable young man” who will be sorely missed.
“The loss of a soldier, in any circumstances, in a family regiment like the Royal Irish is a real blow,” said Lt Col Weir.
“It hits morale and we’ll take a while to recover.”
The officer added: “Here we are at the funeral — at the southern tip of Ireland — which represents the breadth and diversity of this organisation and it represents that we are a true family.”
Ranger Maguire was a full-time member of the regiment’s 1st Battalion based at Tern Hill in Shropshire.
Although the soldier’s funeral followed all other procedures and traditions for a military funeral in the UK, there was no volley of shots fired over the coffin.
The training accident is now the subject of a joint police and Health and Safety Executive investigation.
