Requiem Mass took place at St Mary’s Church, Cabra, this afternoon.<\/p>\n
Addressing mourners, Fr Charles Byrne said the community was \u201clost for words\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said Zipporah\u2019s her life \u201cwas one of selfless love\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is deep sorrow, (people are) struggling to come to terms with the sudden and untimely death of Zipporah Branagan, a much-loved wife, mother to seven young boys, a much loved sister and friend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWords feel so inadequate in the face of such a loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe may well wonder why this should happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have the answer as to why a young mother, so much needed by her family, should die so young.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo our way of thinking, she should have had so many more years to be with her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cZipporah\u2019s death has brought devastating shock and grief to you, her family, to her friends and indeed to her local community here in Cabra and further afield.\u201d<\/p>\n
He described how Zipporah was one of a family of five, born to parents John and Bridie Murtagh from Newcastle.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom her earliest days, Zipporah was full of life, warmth and kindness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had a natural gift of caring for others – a quality that shone throughout her life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The priest described how she started dating her husband Bernard after a night out about 12 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough they had known each other from school, that evening marked the beginning of something truly special for both of them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether they built a home filled with love, laughter and devotion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe marriage was blessed with seven great little children – seven young boys, the youngest just five months, the eldest just 10 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cZipporah was a loving, devoted mother to her young family.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery organised, her days were filled with caring for her children, baking, cooking, helping with the homework, carrying out all the different chores that go into being a caring mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Zipporah](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/37b475ea-c997-4838-bf2c-57806c23ec9d.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Zipporah Branagan. Photo: GoFundMe\/social media<\/p>\n
News Catch Up – Thursday 1 May <\/p>\n
Fr Byrne referred to the outpouring of tributes this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany glowing tributes have been paid to Zipporah over the last few days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all speak to us about the very special person that she was.\u201d<\/p>\n
He read a tribute from her husband, which said: \u201dMy heart is broken. A mummy like no other. A wife, a best friend, gone. Words can\u2019t describe \u2013 only \u2018I love you\u2019 and \u2018we love you\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The priest added: \u201cThose words that end with \u2018kept giving\u2019 would very much sum up Zipporah\u2019s life, and it was very much a life of giving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interment afterwards took place in the adjoining cemetery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zipporah Branagan \u2013 mum to seven young sons \u2013 passed away this week in hospital. It is understood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1384,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-71789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-down-news","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114445249666036178","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}