Kerry mourns Jamey Carney as Ireland's leader condemns "filthy" online abuse against murdered New Yorker

Jamey Carney, the 43-year-old New York native whose murder has shaken the Kerry town she called home, was remembered at her funeral Mass as a woman who brought light into every room she entered, while in Dublin the Taoiseach was compelled to address a wave of hateful 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 and say they are satisfied that a person of interest left the jurisdiction before her body was discovered. Investigators are now working with international law enforcement partners as the case continues.

The 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.

Jamey Carney.

Online abuse

In the Dáil (Ireland's parliament), 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."

Jamey Carney.

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 (Ireland's police) have continued to appeal for information as the investigation moves forward, working across borders with international partners to advance the case.