'His qualities were endless' - Mourners remember journalist Pierre Zakrzewski at his funeral
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Slain journalist Pierre Zakrzewski was remembered as an “exceptional human being” who tried to make the world a better place by exposing bullies and tyrants.
Speaking at his funeral in Dublin this morning, old school friend Ronan ‘Hingo’ Hingerty said the 55-year-old, who was killed in Ukraine, would not be measured by anything he achieved but instead by how he made anybody who knew him feel. He was also remembered as a man of “endless qualities”.
One of his nieces also remembered him as the family member who would let you “tie his curly locks into a million little ponytails (and) jump with you on the trampoline for hours until you felt like you could fly".
Juliette Zakrzewska, writing in the 116-page book of condolences, said he was also the one who would “swing you around in the air upon the beach”. It was, she recalled, “a moment that felt like it could be a movie - if anything it was better than a movie, because it was Pierre”.
The veteran war photographer and camera operator, who was on assignment with Fox News, was with Ukrainian producer Oleksandra Kuvshynova when the vehicle they were in was hit on March 14 near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Mr Zakrzewski and Ms Kuvshinova died as a result of artillery shelling in the north-eastern part of the village of Horenka. Another Fox News journalist, Benjamin Hall, was also seriously injured in the incident.
Pierre had covered wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
Mr Zakrzewski and Ms Kuvshinova’s deaths followed that of US filmmaker Brent Renaud who was killed while on assignment for TIME Studios, the film division of media brand TIME, when his vehicle was hit at a checkpoint in Irpin, just outside Kyiv.
Tributes poured in from all over the world on the journalist family's book of condolences.
At the 10am service in The Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Foxrock, his brother Stas recalled how Pierre's parties at their parents’ south county Dublin house were “by far the wildest and loudest”.
Mr Hingerty recalled Pierre’s “innate ability” to gain entry to checkpoints in the most hostile parts of the world. It was, he recalled, something he did with ease.
“He believed his biggest ace was his Irish passport, and would often recite ‘go n-éirí an bóthar leat’ (‘May the road rise to meet you’) which would initially catch the guards by surprise.
“Then he would hand over some cartons of cigarettes and be on his way.
“For a while, Pierre actually thought that the Irish passport was the secret to getting through.”
Friend Tim Santhouse said of Pierre: “He was a better person. He was who we wished we could become. He was better than the best of all of us combined.
One of his nieces, Juliette Zakrzewska, said that whenever she hears her uncle’s name her eyes light up and “fill to the brim with memories of love, happiness, and peace”.
“Pierre was truly the most wonderful and spirited uncle I could have asked for,” she wrote.