Dungiven quad bike tragedy: Mourners hear Isaac Roxborough (14) had ‘instinctive closeness’ to the land

Shockwaves were felt across Dungiven last week when Burnfoot youth Isaac Roxborough, 14, suffered fatal injuries in the collision outside Eglinton village on Tuesday morning. He died later in hospital on Wednesday.

Last week his flute band and his school both said that he always had "a smile and a kind word for everyone", prompting hundreds of tributes to him on social media.

A family notice said that he was "the precious son of Mark and Katrina, much loved and devoted brother of Adam and James [and] loving grandson of Helen and the late Richard, Kathleen and the late Samuel".

His funeral service took place at Bovevagh Parish Church at 2.00pm today, conducted by Rev Mark Loney.

It had become very clear in the young man that his passion in life had become farming, mourners heard.

"Isaac in the last year or two has loved nothing more than to spend time at his Granny Reilly’s up in Eglinton, at every opportunity," Rev Loney said.

"He had no interest in holidays. His work ethic was second to none. He had spent quality bonding time with his Granda Roxborough and Granda Reilly, both now passed on, both of whom in their ways nurtured Issac’s instinctive closeness to the land.

"It was only this week that he had said to his dad about the farm over at Eglinton ‘Dad I just love it here’. That’s where he was working and toiling the day before his tragic accident."

He was quiet and assuming but would stick up for the defenceless and victimised, Rev Loney said, though he was “not a cross lad nor prone to angry words”.

The young man was also multi-skilled, having made a bench for his grandad’s wood splitter and could help to put up a shed.

"Isaac had a knack of finding easier ways to get jobs done, often surprising [his father] Mark with a revolutionary shortcut that would achieve more, for much less effort."

The teenager was learning the concert flute and liked "a bang on the lambeg drum," reflected in the "deluge of social media tributes" since his death from various bands.

But he also took note of the lives of others, and gave regular words of encouragement to his father in his studies of theology as a parish reader.

Rev Loney said that only two years previously Isaac was confirmed in the very same church.

"He knelt before the Bishop, having taken his decision to follow Christ" and had "remained steadfast" in his faith ever since.

Isaac never refused the opportunity to help out in church, whether that was with powerpoint presentations or putting away tables and chairs.

Only last Sunday he had been in the same church for a lively children's service.

"Little did we know what two days would bring, nor that the following Sunday we would be struggling to do and believe,” Rev Loney added.

Attempting to bring solace to the mourning family for the days ahead, Rev Loney told the story of Jesus calming the furious storm with the words 'Peace be still', when his disciples feared they were going to drown.

He added: "Down the line, when the family is back home, the mourners have passed, those times of fear, vulnerability, and powerlessness are kept at bay. The sense of abandonment, the unknown, judgment and criticism of ourselves might try to rise, but Jesus will cast restraint on it all, saying: 'Peace be still'."