{"id":615373,"date":"2026-08-01T16:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T16:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/615373\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T16:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T16:03:11","slug":"girl-10-who-died-in-car-crash-gave-gift-of-life-to-four-children-through-organ-donation-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/615373\/","title":{"rendered":"Girl (10) who died in car crash gave \u2018gift of life\u2019 to four children through organ donation \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 10-year-old girl who died in a crash<\/a> alongside her mother gave the \u201cgift of life\u201d to four children to whom her organs were donated, a joint funeral service in Milltown in Cavan<\/a> heard today.<\/p>\n

The wicker coffin carrying Nell Saffron Raven (53) and her daughter Irena Raven Mereacre was brought from the family home at Gornacleigh, Milltown, to St Patrick\u2019s Church after 11am today. <\/p>\n

Mother and daughter were involved in a collision between a car and a flatbed van on the R162 road at Corclare, Shercock in Cavan on July 24th. <\/p>\n

Nell, who recently celebrated becoming an Irish citizen, died at the scene of the crash.<\/p>\n

Irena, who was also known as Ira, was airlifted to Temple Street Children\u2019s Hospital<\/a> in Dublin where she died on Tuesday afternoon. <\/p>\n

Chief celebrant Fr Sean McDermott said Irena was a bright, creative child who inherited her gifts for art and writing from her mother, who was a journalist and author.<\/p>\n

He noted that Irena had achieved the dream of many a young child in Ireland by appearing on RT\u00c9\u2019s The Late Late Toy Show<\/a> last Christmas. <\/p>\n

Fr McDermott said she was shy when the family first moved to Milltown from the UK in 2019. However, she soon became \u201ca chatterbox\u201d who was full of \u201clife and joy and fun\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thinking of what I saw on her last card to her teacher. She said, \u2018Thank you for making the year better with your funny jokes. We will miss you. Sorry about the handwriting.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Man and woman seriously injured after Co Laois crash as other driver leaves sceneOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He said the family had opted to donate her organs following her death. In doing so, they assisted four other children and their families. <\/p>\n

Fr McDermott told mourners that Nell was born in Wales in October 1973.<\/p>\n

She met her first husband when they were both journalists with the Press Association in London. A graduate of Oxford, with a master\u2019s in creative writing, she spent three years living in Pakistan where she provided freelance copy to the Telegraph among other UK national newspapers. Her daughters Eveline and Violet Elizabeth Kemp were born in Pakistan. <\/p>\n

She later remarried and had her daughter Irene with her second husband, Alexandru Mereacre. <\/p>\n

Mereacre spoke about his \u201c13-year love story\u201d with Nell, which began in Oxford in 2013. They met at a comedy improvisation group when he was working at the university and she was starting her career as a novelist. The couple married in October 2014. Irena was born in Oxford in July 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was born in an amniotic sac, which in many cultures is considered a sign of good luck. We lived as a happy family in Oxford and Southampton until Nell decided she wanted to move to Ireland,\u201d Mereacre said.<\/p>\n

In 2019 the family of four moved, falling in love with an old cottage in Milltown. They renovated it and made it home. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Garda\u00ed trying to piece together Glen Hansard\u2019s last movements after leaving west Dublin pubOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Irena and Eveline joined Milltown school we knew that this was our place. This is where we belonged. We had a very happy life together,\u201d Mereacre said. \u201cNell raised the family, worked on her book, made new friends, restored the cottage, fought cancer and was the best wife I could wish for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irene\u2019s classmate at Milltown NS, Liam Connolly, also spoke briefly of their happy times together \u2013 including when they attempted to make a fort but then threw stones at it to knock it down.<\/p>\n

Symbols of the life of mother and daughter included a novel by George Orwell, Irena\u2019s favourite teddy, dried flowers in a vase, and the Irish dancing shoes that \u201cgot Ira a place on The Late Late Show\u201d.<\/p>\n

A member of the Romanian and Moldovan Eastern Orthodox community also recited prayers at the service. <\/p>\n

The service got under way with a version of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. It ended with a favourite song of Irena\u2019s \u2013 Hey Brother by Avicii.<\/p>\n

Mother and daughter are also survived by their parents and grandparents, Erik Raven and Christina Smith, and Nell\u2019s sisters Daisy Raven and Poppy Sharrock. Burial followed the service in Drumlane cemetery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 10-year-old girl who died in a crash alongside her mother gave the \u201cgift of life\u201d to four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,42554,18,13,14,6,19,17,48707,11,12,15,16,5,13138,7,8],"class_list":["post-615373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-cavan","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-late-late-toy-show","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-temple-street-hospital","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117021102318548176","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}