On Sunday next, Vincent and Mary Cully should have been receiving a special silver tray to honour their great work for their local camogie club in Turin, Co Westmeath. The club delivered its promise yesterday, but it was at the Offertory during the Requiem Mass for the couple, who were killed at their home on Saturday last.
With the tray was a silver replica of the McCarthy cup, a fitting gesture in this hurling-mad part of Westmeath which has been shocked by the double killing last Saturday.
Shock was written across the faces of the hundreds who attended yesterday's funeral. They packed the granite church and stood 10 deep outside.
The chief celebrant was Father Sean O'Brien SMA from Cork, a first cousin of Vincent Cully. The homily was delivered by Father Seamus Heaney, the parish priest of Delvin.
He told the congregation that they were there to offer support for both the Cully and Kiernan families, and to support the children, Adrian, Jacinta, Yvette, Jermone, Nigel and granddaughter, Denise. They were also there to console the brothers and sisters of Vincent and Mary, and their extended family.
"This disaster has come as a great shock to the community. There is a great sense of helplessness but there is also a desire to console the Cully family in their great loss," he said.
Father Heaney said that the tragedy had shown the great qualities of the community in the way they came out to support the family. He hoped that support would continue.
Mary and Vincent, he said, were well known and respected and contributed generously to the life of the community down the years.
He paid tribute to the way they had cared for Mary's mother until her death only last year, and beside whom they were buried.
Their tragic deaths had brought home to the community the many violent deaths which had happened in Northern Ireland as a result of violence.
"Our prayer today is that no other families or communities will have to suffer such grief."
By forgiving those who had killed him, said Father Heaney, Jesus had shown the way to deal with anger, sorrow and confusion.
The readings during the Mass were by Ms Imelda Kiernan, Mary's sister.
Mr Thomas Nulty, Mr Wesley Foley and Ms Kathleen Nooney read the Prayers of the Faithful and a poem written especially for the Mass was read by Ms Kathleen Poynton of the camogie club.
Representatives of many clubs and local organisations lined the 100-yard path from the church to the twin graves, which were bedecked with red and white flowers.
There to comfort the family was Father Padraig Fitzmaurice, chaplain to Limerick RTC, where Jerome is a second-year student. There too was Father Fintan Cassidy, parish priest of Turin, Father Eamon Marron and Father Lauri Halpin of Kinnegad, and Father Eoin O Drioscoll of Multyfarnham.