Watch: Tragic motorcyclist Benny McIlhatton (44) was fourth sibling to die suddenly - and third one to die in a road crash

Benny, a 44-year-old married father-of-two who worked as a manager at Glens of Antrim Potatoes and was motorbike enthusiast, died on Saturday at the scene of a crash involving a car and his motorcycle on the Magheramorne Road outside Ballycastle.

He was the brother of Martin McIlhatton (21) who had died suddenly in 2008.

In 2003 another brother, Aidan McIlhatton (14) had been killed in a road accident.

And in 1989, his sister Angela (7) had been killed in a different road accident.

The crash which killed Angela had been on the rural Glenravel Road in north Antrim – the same road on which her brother Aidan was killed 15 years later while riding on a scrambler (another child, Shane Delary, aged 17, also died in that scrambler crash).

Martin had died suddenly in hospital after attending a party.

This trail of misery was referenced by parish priest Father Patrick Mulholland during Benny’s funeral at Loughguile (sometimes spelled ‘Loughgiel’) chapel on Wednesday morning.

"I don’t think any of us here can begin to imagine the enormity of pain and grief which must surely weigh upon the hearts of all the McIlhatton family – grief which is now renewed and deepened with the passing of Benny,” he said.

"All I can say is our hearts simply go out to you, and we do hold you very sincerely in our prayers.”

He described Benny as “very warm and friendly” and “full of chat and banter, and an exceptionally kind and generous person who was always ready to give of himself to help other people”.

At the time he died, he was planning to travel to the Isle of Man TT in May with friends.

He was “totally dedicated to his two sons [Caolan and Brandon] – they had more of a ‘best friends’ relationship than ‘father and son’; they were always chumming around together”, whether it was going to stock car race meets or fixing vehicles.

The priest told mourners that for Benny “life has changed, not ended”, calling him “a man of Christian faith who believed in Jesus as his saviour and redeemer”.

Such tragedies cause “challenging questions” to arise, like: “Why does God allow this awful pain and grief and loss which feels like it may overwhelm us completely?”

But he said that the afterlife that is now Benny is “a life of peace, joy, and eternal fulfilment,” and God “wants us to see death as a going home – a going home to our true and eternal home”.

A funeral notice for Benny had described him as husband of Shauna, son of Sean and Mary, brother of Tanya, Shaun, Damian and the late Martin, Aidan and Angela, son-in-law of Sean and Diane, and an uncle.