Outpouring of grief and sorrow in advance of funerals of four victims of Clonmel crash

A sense of foreboding grips the people of Clonmel whenever they hear a helicopter hovering in the skies about the town.
The familiar sight, as occurred last Friday evening, normally is a portent of most unwelcome news that brings troubled days to a bereft family.

On this occasion the emergency services were not summoned to rescue a person from the River Suir, but to attend to the worst tragedy to strike the town in living memory.

A day and night that promised so much joy and celebration for young people after they received their Leaving Certificate results were transformed into a nightmare of unimaginable proportions.
Three families were left mourning the loss of life of loved ones, with a community and a nation plunged into a harrowing darkness.

Three 18- year-old Leaving Certificate students Nicole Murphy, Zoey Coffey, Grace McSweeney and her brother Luke, who was driving the girls to meet a bus to head to Carlow to celebrate their results, all perished in the crash.

FEARED THE WORST
Their excited classmates of the Leaving Certificate Class of 2023 were all sitting in a bus in town waiting for their three friends to arrive.

As the waiting went on the students were receiving information on social media about an horrendous crash near the Loreto school and they feared the worst for their friends.
Four vibrant young people, with the rest of their lives ahead of them, were cruelly taken from their families, their friends and their communities, in the most tragic of circumstances.

The accident and horrific loss of life cast a pall of gloom and sorrow over the town and all over the country.
The following morning, heartbroken Leaving Certificate students began to lay flowers at the wall of the Loreto Secondary School, 150 metres from the scene of the accident at the entrance to the Hillview Sports Club.

SOLEMN CEREMONIES
It set in train a weekend of emotional and solemn ceremonies that gave grief stricken classmates and their parents along with the communities of Clonmel, Kilsheelan and Ballypatrick an opportunity to show their support and solidarity to the bereaved families.

Prayer services were held at the Loreto and Presentation schools to allow pupils and their parents and teachers to grieve together following the death of three Leaving Certificate students.
Prayer services were also held at the Clonmel High School where 24-year-old Luke McSweeney was a past pupil.

A brother of Luke and Grace McSweeney, David, is a Fifth Year pupil at the High School and Ryan Murphy, a brother of Nicole, is a Third Year student at the High School.
Counselling was also available at all three schools for pupils and the offices of C-Saw, the listening service for the bereaved, also opened their offices over the weekend.

On Sunday evening, in a powerful and heartfelt display of solidarity, around 2,000 people attended a candle lit vigil at the Kickham Plaza, The new civic space in the town was designed with the intention in mind to host joyous events. On this sombre occasion, however, it provided a platform for a town overwhelmed with grief to comfort one another and demonstrate their support to the bereaved families.

The funerals of the victims will take place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.