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Duchess mourns: Hundreds at service for murdered honeymooners
The Duchess of York and Adam Mullany yesterday led tributes at the memorial for Catherine and Ben Mullany, the newlyweds shot on honeymoon in Antigua.
Adam, Mr Mullany's brother, told mourners Ben had been his "hero and idol" and that he would endeavour to follow in his footsteps. He described him as a strong, determined person who enjoyed life and he raised smiles when he told how Mr Mullany tried to impress his wife-to-be with his dance moves the first time they met.
The Duchess, who read WB Yeats's He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, praised the courage of Mr and Mrs Mullany's parents. She met Mrs Mullany's brother Richard on a flight to Antigua after the shootings and had been "touched" by their deaths.
About 900 mourners paid their last respects at the memorial service, held in Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff. The couple were buried in a private ceremony last month at the church where they married.
Mrs Mullany, 31, a doctor, died instantly in a botched robbery. Her husband, a trainee physiotherapist who was also 31, died in hospital in Swansea after being flown home in a coma.
The hour-long memorial began with Mr and Mrs Mullany's mothers lighting two large white candles in their memory in front of a large photograph of the couple. A message of support from former cricketer Sir Viv Richards was read out, on behalf of the people of Antigua.
Mrs Mullany's brother Richard Bowen recalled how, when he went over the handle bars of his bike into a bramble bush, his sister showed her strong sense of compassion by trying to make him feel better by doing the same thing herself.
Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan told the congregation: "Today's service is an attempt to express the full range of what we feel, of thanksgiving for lives that were so full of promise and vitality and energy and charm, and yet terrible sadness and at times anger that they have been cut down on the threshold of so much hope."
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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