Family left with 'broken hearts and broken dreams' as Nicole Murphy is laid to rest in Kilcash

The wretched pain of parting with the four beautiful young people who perished in an horrendous car accident in Clonmel last Friday evening began this morning in the quiet village of Kilcash, nestled in the foothills of Slievenamon.

Mist and rain shrouded Slievenamon. Its unseen, brooding presence a solemn backdrop to the sorrow of an incalculable magnitude that swept over the idyllic countryside as mourners arrived up to two hours before the funeral mass started.

The life of 18-year-old Nicole Murphy, who died on the day she received her Leaving Certificate results while on her way to celebrate that achievement, was remembered by her heartbroken family, friends, neighbours, school communities, the people of  Clonmel, Tipperary and the nation.

Two other Leaving Certificate students Zoey Coffey and Grace McSweeney, and her 24 year -old brother Luke, also died in the accident that shocked the country.

“I wish we could have had her for eternity, now she will live in our hearts forever,” her heartbroken mother Serena told a packed St John the Baptist Church, and the hundreds of mourners listening in the grounds of the church in a moving eulogy.

She told the mourners, that included President Michael D Higgins, Minister for Education Norma Foley, Mayor of Clonmel Cllr Richie Molloy and Aide-de Camp Commandant Claire Mortiner representing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar,  that her family was now left with broken dreams and broken hearts.

Serena said her daughter “lit up a room” when she entered and described her as “truly beautiful, inside and out,”

“God bless my beautiful baby girl and my best friend, I pray that she will follow her dreams somewhere even more beautiful now,” said Serena, with her other daughter Zoe standing by her side on the altar.

Serena told tearful mourners how they had breakfast together as a family the morning Nicole received her Leaving Certificate results and later that evening she was taken from them.

She said that Nicole was full of  dreams and was so excited to be moving on to study midwifery in Cork with the intention of eventually doing radiography, something she had dreamed about since she was very young.

Serena spoke of how Christmas was such a wonderful and special time for Nicole, or Nikki as she was known to her family and friends.

She said Nicole was “the boss” of the house at Christmas and loved to gaze at the angel she would place at the top of the Christmas tree.

Serena asked mourners to remember Nikki at Christmas time.

“When  you are putting the angel on top of the Christmas tree this year, think of Nikki and pray for her,” she said.

A Christmas tree, an apron, rosary beads and her concertina were among the symbols brought to the altar in the offertory procession. They represented her love of Christmas, her love of baking, her strong faith and her joy in music.

During the mass prayers were said for the other three occupants of the car that Nicole was travelling in when it crashed on Friday night -  Zoey Coffey, Grace McSweeney and her brother Luke McSweeney, whose family members were in attendance at St John the Baptist Church.

Prayers were also said for the three members of the O’ Reilly family that died in a road traffic accident on Tuesday night in Cashel.

The funeral mass was celebrated by  Father Brian Power  who described Nicole as a loving, caring and kind  person.

Parish Priest Fr Power told her devastated parents  Declan and Serena, her sister Zoe, her brother Ryan  and grandparents  Margaret and John (Manning) and Eileen (Murphy),   that Nicole “ Was a gift to you and you were a gift to her,” from the altar of the church that Nicole was baptised, where she received her First Holy Communion and where she received her First Holy Communion.

Bishop of Waterford and Lismore Alphonsus Cullinan praised the members of the emergency services who attended to the car crash in Clonmel on the previous Friday night in which the four young people lost their lives.

He offered his sincere sympathies to the family, to her friends and to the students and staff of the secondary schools in Clonmel.

As the remains of Nicole were taken from St John the Baptist Church a rendition of her favourite song, A Million Dreams, a song she loved to sing with her mother Serena in the car, was sang by Andrea Ruth accompanied by members of the Loreto choir.

With the congregation in tears, the singer and choir members embraced one another at the end of the song as the coffin was carried from the church.

It was guided on its way to the adjoining cemetery by a guard of honour formed by her distraught school friends from the Loreto Secondary School.