The boy\u2019s father, Declan, was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n
Mourners at Eoin\u2019s funeral on Tuesday at St Patrick\u2019s Church, Cloonfad, heard how he was deeply loved by his family, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and most especially by his twin sister, Saoirse.<\/p>\n
His mother, Elaine Doyle, spoke movingly and lovingly of her \u201ckindhearted, friendly, sports-loving\u201d son.<\/p>\n
\u201cRest in peace, our fallen, handsome boy, until we meet again,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe loss of our beautiful boy has no positives at all, albeit that it highlights the importance of kindness to others in our daily lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cEoin was kindhearted to family, friends and the family pets. He hated to see anyone upset or in trouble.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very difficult to know how we go on from here. Our home has changed forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elaine Doyle said her son, who played underage football with local soccer club Cloonfad United, dreamt of one day of playing for Manchester United.<\/p>\n
![\"Mourners](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/V4WJR7LZRKHZR4JETPNV3HEXAA.jpg\")
Mourners leave the funeral of Eoin Doyle at St Patrick’s Church in Cloonfad, Co Mayo, on Tuesday. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne\/PA <\/p>\n
The Archbishop of Tuam, Francis Duffy, was among the concelebrants at the funeral, which was packed with mourners. <\/p>\n
Eoin\u2019s father, Declan, the driver of the car involved in crash, sat in a front pew.<\/p>\n
On Eoin\u2019s coffin there was a photograph of the Doyle family with the Sam Maguire trophy in Ballyhaunis following Mayo\u2019s win in the All-Ireland SFC final in July.<\/p>\n
His mother told mourners how, as a baby, Eoin had spent most of his time on someone\u2019s shoulder and never slept in a cot.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always loved having someone to lie in with him to fall asleep every night and that continued until some time last year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it would never end, but I would give anything now to another night to lie in with Eoin.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said her son had many loves in his life and sport was one of these. His dream was to play with Manchester United.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we never know, really whether that could have happened or not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had his first training session the other night with the under-13 football team in Ballyhaunis.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a bit reluctant and nervous to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want [him] to go and, really, he was pretty anxious about going, but when he was on his way home, Declan told me afterwards he was really excited about how well it had actually gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fr Stephen Farragher, the main celebrant, spoke of his deepest sympathy with Eoin\u2019s parents Declan and Elaine, Eoin\u2019s twin Saoirse, stepbrother Conor and both sets of grandparents, Pat and Marguerite Doyle and Ger and Mary Corcoran.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a tragedy that touched the heart of a nation,\u201d Fr Farragher said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe celebrate Eoin\u2019s life, the joy he brought to those around him, the friendships he made … the love that surrounded him every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday is a day of tears, but it is also a day of thanksgiving for the precious gift of Eoin\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the Mass, burial took place in Ballyhaunis Cemetery. \u2013 Additional reporting by Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mother of a boy who died after a train hit a car has described him as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,13419,11,12,15,16,2354,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-679040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-rail","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-mayo","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117237021230826752","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679040","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=679040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}