Full military honours were rendered at her funeral Mass in Boston on Saturday where her mother Angela and other family members led the mourners.

Later this week Ciara's ashes will be returned to her native Eanach Mheain in Beal a' Daingean to allow her extended family, neighbours and friends from the tightly-knit Gaeltacht community to pay their respects.

Her remains will then be laid to rest alongside those of her late father, Tommy, in the local graveyard.

Part of her ashes will also be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC -- the dedicated graveyard for US Army personnel -- at a future date.

Draped in the US flag, her coffin lay before the altar at John the Baptist Church in Quincy, Boston, during her funeral.

Her sister Aine read a poem she had written which spoke about the loss of "our Ciara with the wild red hair".

Her brother Pierce spoke after the funeral Mass, referring to his sisters "sparkplug" personality which people could not help but love.

Also attending the funeral was Senator John Kerry who has led the questioning of the circumstances surrounding Ciara Durkin's death at the secure airbase in Bagram. Other senators, including Edward Kennedy, members of Congress and Irish government officials are also involved.

Ciara's death is gaining widespread attention because of questions surrounding her death.

Initially the Pentagon reported that Ciara, part of a finance unit deployed to Afghanistan in November 2006, had been killed in action, but then changed its statement to read she had died of injuries "suffered from a non-combat related incident" at Bagram Airfield.

The statement had no specifics and said the circumstances are under investigation.

Her family said that Army investigators met with them for four hours last week to reassure them that they are trying to find out what happened.

According to her family, Durkin once said she saw "something she didn't like" while she was home on leave and that she asked her family to investigate if she died.

Her family have admitted that they are "completely in the dark" about how she met her death on September 27. Her sister Fiona Canavan has revealed that on her last visit home, Ciara had spoken of seeing things she did not like and said she had raised concerns that had annoyed some people.

Fiona Canavan, told the Boston Globe: "She was in a secure area of the compound, which, even though the investigation is not complete, leads the family to believe it was what is called friendly fire.

"She was in the finance unit and she said, 'I discovered some things I don’t like and I made some enemies because of it.'"

"At the time we thought it was said more as a joke," Canavan told the paper.