On Sunday evening, as the summer drew in, the people of Clonmel gathered in an effort to make sense of a cold devastation, thrust on the town in one cruel moment last Friday.
In a public outpouring of grief and solidarity, thousands filled the Kickham Barracks Plaza in the centre of the Co Tipperary town and held vigil following the deaths of four local young people in a car crash to celebrate the Leaving Cert results.
Nicole Murphy, Zoey Coffey, Grace McSweeney (all 18) and Ms McSweeney’s brother Luke (24) were killed when, during a heavy downpour, the vehicle they were travelling in overturned and hit a wall on Mountain Road in Clonmel.
The three teenagers had received their Leaving Cert results just hours before, and were due to travel to Carlow to celebrate the occasion. Ms Coffey and Ms McSweeney were former pupils of Clonmel’s Presentation Secondary School, while Ms Murphy attended Loreto Secondary School, also in the town.
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Addressing the vigil, Fr Michael Toomey, a chaplain at CBS High School Clonmel, spoke of the inadequacy of words in the face of such tragedy.
“’I don’t know what to say’, is a phrase we’ve used over the last 48 hours. It’s what I told Zoey and Nicole’s mams on Friday night.
“There are occasions in life where no words actually seem appropriate. We enter total sadness and desolation, we’re numbed, speechless. This weekend that’s exactly what everyone in Clonmel, Ballypatrick and Kilsheelan – right across the country, indeed, have felt,” he said.
He paid tribute to the wider community, the emergency services, and encouraged young people impacted by the tragedy to seek help and support in one another.
Many who had maintained a solemn silence broke down in tears when Andra Day’s ‘Rise Up’ was played over loudspeakers at the conclusion of the vigil.
After the vigil, those who had gathered placed candles and flowers in front of the temporary altar. Above them, the familiar faces of the four deceased – the same photographs printed in newspapers around the country over the weekend – were displayed in simple photo frames.
Local schools and sports clubs were represented at the vigil. As crowd began to thin out, a woman wearing a Presentation College school-leavers hoodie rubbed the arm of a younger girl, dressed in a Clonmel’s Kool School Gymnastics Academy top. One of the victims, Ms MsSweeney, was an avid gymnast.
Throughout the day, people walked towards Loreto Secondary School, where scores of bouquets had been offered by sympathisers. A further 150 metres away from the school, at the scene of Friday’s crash, more flowers were left.
On Sunday evening, Faye Turner (15), a student of Loreto Secondary School, was walking along the river Suir after dropping flowers and tea lights to the makeshift shrines close to her school. “I just never thought that something like this would happen so close to home,” she said.
Earlier, Tommy Coyne, a neighbour of the McSweeney family, was walking on Mountain Road, close to his house just outside Clonmel. “Everyone is just shocked, you know,” he said. “It is such a pity, when these things happen.”
A short distance away, at the McSweeney household, sympathisers called throughout the day. Two bouquets sat either side of the entrance to the house.
Back towards the town, Mark Hanratty stood for a moment at the scene of the crash. His children attended local school with some of the victims, he said, and their relatives.
“I suppose the fact that it’s a small town – everyone knows everybody. You mightn’t know the people directly, but you know someone who knows them,” said Mr Hanratty, who is from Dublin but has been a long-time resident of Clonmel. “There’s schools, but there’s [also] clubs, there’s scouts, there’s gymnastics ... It’s just tragic.”
On Sunday morning, a 15-minute drive from Clonmel, Fr Brian Power led tributes to the young people during Mass in the village of Kilcash, close to Ms Murphy’s homeplace. The mood in the locality was one of devastation, he told The Irish Times after Mass, standing outside St John the Baptist Church.
John Shelley, from just outside the village, was standing by his car after the service, looking out towards the Comeragh Mountains. “Everyone is shocked, it’s terrible,” Mr Shelley said. “It’s one of these freak accidents.”
Mr Shelley said that the tragedy would reverberate not just locally, but nationally. “I can only imagine what their mothers are feeling ... and their families.”
Another woman, standing outside St John the Baptist Church in Kilcash, said: “I’ve no comment. We are all grieving.”
A short drive downhill from Kilcash, Ms Coffey’s home village of Kilsheelan was quiet on Sunday morning.
At the centre of the village, a Tricolour fluttered at half-mast.
