They came to celebrate a life and avoid controversy. But this Bondi victim’s family had a message

All Australians should be able to go to the beach, walk the streets of Sydney on New Year’s Eve or attend a religious celebration without fear of being shot, said the brother of former police officer and Randwick Rugby royalty Peter Meagher who was killed in the Bondi Beach massacre.

Speaking at St Mary’s Cathedral to a congregation including NSW Premier Chris Minns, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, and Governor-General Sam Mostyn, Peter’s younger brother David Meagher said proposed changes to gun laws in NSW were not enough to ensure these freedoms.

“The killer on December 14 had six legally acquired high-powered guns that were used to kill 15 people, including my brother,” he told the gathering.

David said the family did not want to wade into any controversy after the attack, and only wanted to celebrate Peter’s life. But when he heard a very famous Australian say it was not a gun problem but an antisemitism problem, he said he thought, “Why can’t it be two things at once?”

“Under new laws he [the killers] would have been allowed to have four guns. What can you do with six guns that you can’t do with four?” said David, the editor of Gourmet Traveller.

“Gun reform alone will not solve hatred or extremism, but an antisemite without a gun is just a hate-filled person. An antisemite with a gun is a killer.”

It was a rare political note in the Mass led by Father Richard Leonard, the Jesuit priest who married Peter and Virginia Wynne-Markham nine years ago, that otherwise celebrated the life of a man who distinguished himself by service to others.

Looking out over a cathedral packed with men wearing yarmulkes, women carrying Catholic prayer books, police officers, politicians and Randwick Rugby Club members wearing a touch of the club’s myrtle green, Leonard welcomed those who were not Catholic to the service.

“I’d especially like to welcome our Jewish sisters and brothers. As Archbishop Fisher [of Sydney] reminded us within days of the Bondi terrorist attack, Jesus was a Jew, born of a Jewish mother, born a subject of the Jewish law. Mary and Joseph were Jews. Christians are children of the Jews, and so an attack on the Jews is an attack on all of us.”

Peter, 61, was a member of the NSW Police Force for 34 years, rising to the position of detective sergeant, until he retired in 2021. And “Marzo” – as he was called – had volunteered at Randwick Rugby where his family was considered club royalty for decades.

When he died, he was doing what he loved: taking photos of the Hanukkah celebration for the Orthodox Jewish group Chabad, which had employed his wife Virginia at its school.

Many of their friends were at the Hanukkah event at Archer Park in Bondi where he and 14 others were killed, Virginia said.

“As he left at 4.15pm that Sunday, I said, ‘Give them my love,’ ” she said. “And all our lives are forever changed.”

Virginia and Peter met on eHarmony in 2009; neither had previously married, neither had children. He was a police officer, she a daughter of prison officers, she told the Mass. It took five months of calls and messages before they met for a date. “We had a very slow burn,” she said.

He was the first person to buy her flowers. Her friends in the Jewish community said he was a “mensch”.

Her late husband was described as gentle, kind, quiet and quirky. “He was all those things and many more. He was sensitive, and would subtly weep in movies. He was a proper old school chap,” she said. He would sit with his back to the wall when they went out for dinner to watch over her.

Virginia told mourners she was never unsure of his love: “Every text message, WhatsApp and voicemail from Peter begins with ‘hi darling’ and ends with ‘I love you’,” she said.

Morgan Turinui – a former Wallaby speaking on behalf of the rugby community – began with an apology for not giving Peter life membership of the Randwick Rugby Club, where Peter volunteered for decades.

Turinui said among the club’s life members were Peter’s grandfather Wally, a Wallabies’ Hall of Famer, and his father, Ron, a “quality back” who became a referee.

Peter’s name was not on the list because his life’s work was not yet done.

“Our thinking was that, while well-earned, it seemed premature, almost presumptuous. To put it simply, the most generous man I’ve ever known still had more to give.

“Peter owned his own place through decades of quiet, consistent service, he didn’t seek the spotlight. He held it for others.”

Meagher was remembered as a quiet, clever and extremely kind man, a police officer who took calls from a drug addict in jail every day to keep the young man’s hopes up.

“His calmness was legendary and kind of unique really: just to give you an example, [his brother] Andrew once took him to an AC/DC concert, and he actually managed to fall asleep,” David Meagher recalled.

Retired assistant commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said Peter had received a high number of citations for his service.

“Peter received three separate individual Commissioners Commendations, which is extremely rare.”

One was for his investigative response and assistance to the coronary investigation following the Lindt cafe siege.

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