Irish-Australian member of Australian SAS laid to rest
KIA in Afghanistan
Digger given final salute
Andrew Fraser July 19, 2008
SAS signaller Sean McCarthy lived in many places in his 25 years; yesterday, to the sound of military bagpipes, he was buried in his final resting place. Nearly 1000 people attended the funeral, at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Crystal Waters on the Gold Coast, of Signaller McCarthy, who was killed last week by a roadside bomb while he was on patrol in southern Afghanistan.
Earlier, there had been a private family service for Signaller McCarthy, the sixth Australian soldier to be killed while on active duty in Afghanistan. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson attended the funeral. The service, while closed to the media, attracted a wide cross-section of mourners, from Signaller McCarthy's old school friends from Trinity Lutheran College on the Gold Coast to Mr Rudd, who comforted family and friends after the service.
Others to attend the funeral service included Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support Mike Kelly, a former soldier who served in Iraq, Queensland Deputy Premier Paul Lucas, Vice- Chief of the Defence Forces Lieutenant General David Hurley, and Chief of the Army Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie.
Army chaplain Gary Stone said Signaller McCarthy had "run the race of life well".
"Sean Patrick McCarthy was a loving son, loving brother, loving relative and mate," the chaplain told the service. "You have shown the greatest love a person could show and we salute you."
Wide-ranging tributes from politicians to sportsmen were paid to Signaller McCarthy, the second Australian casualty in Afghanistan this year. The Wallabies, who play South Africa in Perth today, rued the loss of "one of their own" and paid tribute to Signaller McCarthy, an avid rugby supporter. Signaller McCarthy was born in New Zealand but grew up on the Gold Coast, entering the army after he finished school in 2001. But he maintained close links with the Gold Coast as his family still lived there, and he would always look up his old mates when he returned.
In his military career, he served in East Timor and did his first trip to Afghanistan last year before he transferred to the Perth-based Special Air Service Regiment before going to Afghanistan. Signaller McCarthy was awarded the Australian Active Service Medal and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal. After the service, the soldier's coffin was carried from the church by six of his military comrades, and he was finally laid to rest at the Southport Lawn Cemetery.
Australia, one of the United States' staunchest allies.
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