He was accompanied by his parents Brian and Una, brothers Keith, John and Barry, a host of relations, friends and admirers and he left behind those of us who never had the privilege to meet him and felt all the poorer for that.

A packed St Patrick's Church heard about a young man who had managed to pack more into his 25 years than most of us manage in a lifetime and along the way he ploughed a furrow that he filled with adventure, humour and a huge amount of love.

There was a dignity about the proceedings today in Fermoy that mirrored the courage he had shown in the past 16 months since suffering the horrific injury that left him paralysed from the neck down. But you only had to witness the manner his family conducted themselves in this perhaps their darkest hour, to understand why Stuart Mangan was the person he was.

The excerpt from Shakespere on the back page of the Mass Book was so apt,

His life was gentle, and the elements So mixed in him that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world,

This was a Man.