Seventeen candles for the 17 short years of Swiss student Manuela Riedo's life were borne by 17 international students in silence through a darkened Galway city church last night.
The Swiss national flag and a bouquet of red roses representing the "sadness and grief" of the local populace were also placed below the altar of the Church of St Oliver Plunkett in Renmore. Addressing a congregation of more than 1,000 people, parish priest of Renmore, Fr Michael Mulkerrins, spoke of the "pitch-black dark" into which the parents of an only child had been cast, and compared Ms Riedo's violent death in the city nine days before to "the fall of a young tree".
Her death had "shattered the community" in Renmore, and shocked the people of Galway, Fr Mulkerrins said, but her mother, Arlette, had made it clear that she and her husband Hans bore no grudge against the city, or against Ireland, for the actions of one person who was responsible.
However, a sense of deep shame that such an act could have occurred in a "beautiful city" was articulated in a number of messages of condolence - 10 of which were read at the service by Claire Kilcourse and William Browne of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT).
Concelebrants included the Bishop of Galway, Dr Martin Drennan, Fr Tom Brady, GMIT chaplain, Fr Seán Kilcoyne of Bon Secours Hospital, Fr Iomar Daniels, NUI, Galway chaplain, Rev Patrick Towers of St Nicholas's Collegiate Church and Rev Clodagh Yambasu of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches.
The Garda, Army, members of the Oireachtas and Galway City Council, and representatives of NUI, Galway, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Galway's three language schools and primary schools in Renmore were represented at last night's service.
