There were four funerals but just one overarching theme – the sense of young lives cut short in a brutal instant. The funerals for the last two of the four young women killed in Tuesday’s car crash outside Athy, Co Kildare took place on Saturday afternoon.
In keeping with the occasion, it was a bleak mid-winter day with a numbing cold wind from the north, yet Ashling Middleton’s mother Sharon stood in the cold for what seemed like an age accepting the condolences of mourners. She lost her husband, Ashling’s father Ray, seven years ago and now her only child.
The promise of a life cut short was echoed in comments from the altar by Ashling's grandfather David Thornley. He quoted the poem that Ashling had written for the school yearbook in 2013.
It had previously been quoted by Clare Ryan, principal of St Leo's College, Carlow – which had been attended by all four of the dead women – at a memorial service earlier in the week.
“We are not our past, we are not our future, we are the present. With our dreams we have the ability to transform the world from the mundane to the beautiful, from the grey to the gold.
“If some day we lose these goals for a while, we shouldn’t worry. Like the friends which we have made in the last six years, our dreams will always await our return and welcome us back with open arms and a wise smile willing to chase away the darkness of failure in return for a little time and care.”
The congregation at the Church of the Irish Martyrs in Ballycane, Naas, heard of Ashling's love of reading and writing, her sense of humour and her love of music. Along with a copy of Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch, symbolising her love of reading, a ticket for a One Direction concert was placed on the altar.
Music was also an integral part of the life of Niamh Doyle whose funeral Mass took place at Holy Family Church, Askea, Carlow, two hours earlier.
A ticket for a Coronas concert was placed on the altar along with a book from her social care course at Waterford IT. Her sister Louise spoke of a sister who was so "beautiful and pretty and funny".
She quoted from the lines of Paramore's Misguided Ghosts, one of her sister's favourite songs. "I'm going away for a while but I'll be back. Don't try to follow me 'cos I'll return as soon as possible. See, I'm trying to find my place but it might not be here where I feel safe. "We all learn to make mistakes and run from them with no direction with no conviction 'cos I'm just one of those ghosts."
It was Fr Tom Little’s third funeral in two days. He spoke of how the crash happened on January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany, when the three wise men had followed a bright star, but the community was “overpowered with the darkness of the death of the four beautiful girls”.
An internet campaign has now begun to persuade Ed Sheeran to visit Dayna Kearney (20), the driver of the Volkswagen Polo, in which the four dead women were passengers, when it was in collision with a transit van on Tuesday night. She remains in hospital. A Facebook page set up to make it happen has attracted more than 30,000 followers.
