Family and friends paid tribute to Berkeley balcony collapse survivor Aoife Beary during her funeral service in south Dublin on Friday morning.
Beary, 27, died on New Year's Day, in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital after suffering a stroke on December 29. She was laid to rest on Friday morning at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Foxrock, in Dublin.
She suffered life-changing injuries on June 16, 2015, when the fourth-story balcony she was standing on disintegrated beneath her feet during her 21st birthday party, at the Library Gardens apartment block, in Berkeley, California.
Six of her friends perished in the tragedy, while seven others, including Aoife, suffered life-changing injuries.
Speaking during Friday's service, Fr. Kieran Dunne said Beary "embraced life and its possibilities" and that she was "a person rooted in her family, parish, and community, a loving, loyal, and faithful young woman who had the capacity to nourish true friendship."
Beary's godfather James O'Doherty spoke on behalf of her family at Friday's funeral service and said that Aoife "fought such a good fight" in the wake of the tragedy.
"The burden of your injuries and the burden of dealing with them didn’t leave a lot of space for joy in living but you insisted on living life well. You insisted on a life full of meaning and purpose," O'Doherty said during the funeral.
"I know she wanted to live a full life on behalf of the friends she lost in Berkeley and even though it was just a short six years, I think she definitely achieved this."
Tributes were also paid to Irish students Eoghan Culligan, Lorcan Miller, Niccolai Schuster, Eimear Walsh, Olivia Burke, and Olivia's Irish-American cousin Ashley Donohoe who perished in the tragedy in 2015.
O'Doherty spoke of Aoife's "unwavering determination" during her recovery and noted her contribution to improved building and safety regulations in the US in the wake of the tragedy.
In the wake of the 2015 tragedy in Berkeley, Beary campaigned for US building companies to release public safety records and testified before California's state legislature during a hearing in 2016 to force contractors to be more transparent about legal claims against them.
The California Senate subsequently approved legislation in 2016 that enforces greater oversight and regulation during the construction process, including a requirement for the Building Standards Commission to look at improving their safety requirements for balconies and other outdoor structures.
Aoife's campaign revealed that Segue Construction, who built the Library Gardens complex, had paid out $26.5 million in construction defect settlements that were never disclosed to California's state license board.
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