RIBBONS of blue fluttered among a sea of checkered caps at Holy Cross Church, Kippa-Ring as more than 3000 family, friends and colleagues farewelled a much-loved police officer on August 28.
The huge crowd spilled into the church grounds, north of Brisbane, to mourn the loss of Senior Sergeant Perry Irwin, who was shot in the line of duty by a drug addict near Caboolture on August 22.
Even stoney-faced senior police were seen to wipe away a few tears during the emotional funeral service.
Snr Sgt Irwin, who became a Catholic some years ago, was described at the funeral first and foremost as a family man.
His love for wife, Melissa, and children Daniel, 19, Jenna, 17, Elizabeth, 10, and Patrick, 8, was remembered as the family brought up to the altar a football he kicked with his sons, the helmet he wore while riding his motorcycle and a family photo.
Police chaplain, Deacon Mick Lappin, who led the funeral service, with two other police chaplains, noted how Snr Sgt Irwin was shot on a hill, just as Jesus Christ died 2000 years earlier on another hill.
Referring to the service’s Gospel reading of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), he said Perry Irwin lived these Beatitudes in his everyday life.
Senior Constable Peter Thompson read a series of family tributes on behalf of the Irwin family.
In one of them, son Patrick had written: ‘Dad, I wonder what heaven is like? I want to go and see you, but I don’t want to die.’
Snr Sgt Irwin was laid to rest in a small cemetery at Yarraman, a town which he once served and which his family said he loved.
