Jamey Carney, the 43-year-old native of New York whose murder has shaken the Co Kerry town she called home, was remembered at her funeral Mass on Wednesday as a woman who brought light into every room she entered. Meanwhile, in Dublin, Ireland's Taoiseach Micheal Martin hit out at the wave of hateful online comments targeting her memory.
Mourners packed St Mary's Cathedral in Killarney for the Requiem Mass, where Fr Kieran Ó Brien told those gathered, including Carney's 13-year-old daughter Michaela, her mother Kathy, and her sister Devon Bennett, that the people of Killarney were rallying around the family in their hour of need.
The priest said Michaela was the love of her mother's life and that the pair shared the same close bond Jamey had enjoyed with her own mother growing up in Westchester, New York.
Fr Ó Brien spoke movingly of the life Carney built for herself after crossing the Atlantic, describing a woman who threw herself fully into friendship and community.
"She was happy in life and with life, namely because life was good to her. She had a great circle of friends who did everything together, like sisters more than friends. Her love of shopping, coffee and lunch appointments, going to concerts, her love of country music, holidaying and seeing the world was well matched by her friends," he said.
"She was adventurous, determined, all memories of time spent well together."
He closed with words that captured how the community had come to see her: "We thank God for Jamey's life, remembering at all times her joy, and the ray of sunshine that she brought to all of your lives," the Irish Times reports.
A private cremation for family followed the Mass.
Carney's body was found by her own daughter at their home on the Muckross Road in Killarney last week. She had suffered head injuries, and a postmortem confirmed she died a violent death by suffocation. Gardaí have launched a murder investigation, noting that a person of interest left the jurisdiction before Carney's body was discovered.
Carney's boyfriend, Ahmad Al-Saqar, has since been arrested in his native Jordan. The Irish Sun reports that Gardai had been informed of the arrest on Monday, but sources confirmed that the Irish police force had not requested his detention.
Jordan’s Interior and Justice ministries confirmed in a joint statement to the Irish Sun that they received a report from Irish authorities regarding the killing of Carney, a US citizen, prompting an operation to find Al-Saqar and his subsequent arrest.
“The security authorities immediately launched a search and investigation operation to track down the suspect," the statement said.
“After identifying his home address and whereabouts, they arrested him and formally recorded his police statement in accordance with due process.
“He was then referred to the Public Prosecutor of the High Criminal Court, who began the investigation and ordered that he be held for 15 days at a correctional and rehabilitation centre while the investigation continues.”
Jamey Carney.
Online abuse
Wednesday's funeral capped a harrowing week for a family already dealing with unimaginable grief, made worse by an ugly undercurrent that has played out on social media in the days since Carney's death.
In the Dáil, Kerry Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly raised the issue directly with Taoiseach Mícheál Martin, describing abusive material that had been posted on Carney's own social media accounts in the wake of her death.
Martin did not mince words in his response, calling the murder itself "appalling and horrific" and saying the family's suffering had been made worse by what he called the "filthy and horrific material" circulating online.
"The social media platforms have obligations here and should act very quickly to withdraw such material," Martin said.
"It is unacceptable and there has to be a zero-tolerance approach to that type of social media content. One can only imagine the suffering that family is going through, and then they have had to experience this afterwards."
Some of the abusive posts have targeted Carney over her advocacy for Palestinian rights and her relationship with her partner, who is originally from the Middle East. Comments questioning her character and mocking her death have racked up thousands of likes on some platforms, even as her family and friends have tried to keep the focus on who she actually was.
Friends and relatives describe a woman who fell in love with Ireland after a single visit and never looked back, building a life for herself and her daughter in Killarney since 2021. She was known locally for her warmth, her involvement in the community and her devotion to Michaela, and her death has left what one local councillor called a black cloud hanging over the town.
Gardaí have continued to appeal for information as the investigation moves forward, working across borders with international partners to advance the case.
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