Young people considering continuing in the “criminal activity” that led to the deaths of five teenagers in a crash on the M9 have been urged to “please stop” by the chief celebrant at the last of the youths’ funerals. Canon Frank McEvoy made a strongly worded appeal at the funeral of Jack Kennedy (17), at St Michael the Archangel Church in Athy, Co Kildare, on Tuesday. Addressing mourners, scores of whom were teenage boys, he said: “There is something I want to say, and especially to Jack’s friends. If you are considering continuing in this criminal activity, please stop. Just one word. Stop. “Because this is the end of it,” he said gesturing the white coffin before the altar, and Kennedy’s family in the first pew. “This is a family broken ... [These are] the consequences of that, be it to you yourself, your family, the communities in which you live in.“And then you have the innocent victims, like the people who are in hospital trying to recover. There is no need for it. There is no need for it. So again, I would say: Please, please. Stop.”[ ‘What the boys did was wrong,’ priest tells funeral of M9 crash teenager Jeremy O’BrienOpens in new window ]Kennedy was killed when the BMW in which he was he travelling with four others – Joe Carthy (15) also from Athy, Jeremy O’Brien (18) and his cousin Alex Carthy (16) from Carlow town, and Kamil Pustkowski (17) from Limerick – was in a head-on collision with another car, near Moone, Co Kildare, at about 3am on Sunday, August 16th. The BMW was travelling the wrong way on the northbound carriage of the motorway. Three sisters and a seven-year-old boy in the other car, which was travelling in the correct direction from Carlow to Dublin Airport, were seriously injured. Sisters Alma and Niamh Kinsella, along with their younger sister Ella Hendricken and their seven-year-old nephew Yemi, remain in hospital in Dublin.Kennedy’s coffin was carried into the church on the shoulders of family, including his mother, Sarah, and his two sisters. A large spray of white lilies was placed in the coffin and a recent photo of the boy, smiling and holding a back Labrador puppy, was displayed. Looking back on a week of “difficult funerals”, McEvoy said the dust had “settled somewhat”. “Last Tuesday morning, the feeling around the parish was one of shock, confusion, disbelief and, above all, anger. “Anger is a very dangerous emotion ... Once anger starts curdling in a community, anything can happen. When you watch social media and you watch the responses and you hear what people are saying ... that can result in actions. “Then – in the midst of all of that there is so much hurt for the [Kennedy] family. “[Sarah] wouldn’t wish any of you to walk in her shoes, having to bury her son.”A garda watches as mourners arrive for the funeral of Jack Kennedy. Photograph: Evan Treacy/PA Wire His mother, in her eulogy, sent the family’s “heartfelt apologies” to the injured. “You are all in our thoughts and prayers and we pray to God you all make a full recovery,” she said.She hit back at negative commentary, especially online, directed at the five bereaved families. “I do not understand why [people] say such unkind things knowing that five families are suffering.“The pain we are all feeling right now, we will have that pain forever.“None of you wants to walk in our shoes and I pray to God none of you will,” she said. “This is to my little soldier, Jack. I will never forget your kindness, your smile, your love, your handsomeness.“They say you never forget your first true love. Until you first came along and I first laid eyes on you, son, it was only then I knew what true love meant – by loving a boy. You were my first true love.“A mother and son’s bond is of pure love ... ‘I love you, Mam’, were your last words to me, and I said, ‘I love you more, son.’” [ Will Ireland continue to take TikTok’s money after M9 crash? Too bloody true we willOpens in new window ]Among gifts brought to the altar to represent Kennedy’s interests were a fishing rod, a model car, his pet dog’s collar, his PlayStation controller and two small soft toys.His sisters Keeleigh and Sarahkate shared emotional memories of FaceTime conversations, going for walks and cooking together. His remains were brought from the church, again carried by his mother and sisters, and placed in a black carriage drawn by two black horses. Before the carriage left for the cremation of Kennedy’s remains, his mother released five blue balloons, one for each of those killed in the crash. Naming each as she let them go, she said as the last left her hands, “We love you”.