Kathy Sheridan: Cocoon of stillness merciful after Berkeley tragedy

Silence is an eloquent requiem. It permeated the air around the church of UCD Belfield in south Dublin, as hundreds gathered on a gentle, sunny June day, to remember the six Irish J-1 students who lost their lives in the Berkeley tragedy.

It enveloped the congregation in a cocoon of stillness that seemed merciful after four harrowing days of shock, grief, confusion and burgeoning anger, and a visceral yearning to hold faraway loved ones close.

Tissues were dabbed at tear-filled eyes later during the service as a student prayed for “all students travelling this summer, that they may travel safely”.

Seated close to President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina in the crowded church were family members of two young men who died.

They were John and Alexi Schuster, the father and brother of Niccolai, a history and politics student, and Ruth and Stanley Miller and Maura and Michael McKenna, grandparents of Lorcán Miller, a medical student.

Few there had been untouched by news of that tragedy, “eight hours and 8,000 kilometres away . . .”, which had shattered the Bloomsday college routine, in the words of UCD president, Prof Andrew Deeks: “We lost six wonderful young people, and the lives of a generation of students were completely changed.”

The moving 45-minute service was graced with traditional, classical and sacred piano and cello music performed by Killian Grumley Traynor and Eithne Nic an Riogh, who was a friend of both Lorcán and of Eimear Walsh, a third-year medical student who also died.

Sombre

Niccolai, Lorcán and Eimear died alongside

Olivia Burke

, who studied at IADT in

Dún Laoghaire

;

Eoghan Culligan

, a student at DIT; and Ashley Donohoe, their Irish -American friend from San Francisco.

Both colleges were represented, as were St Andrew's College, St Mary's and Loreto Foxrock.

The sense of an ethereal connection between the sombre church and that place 8,000km was never far away.

UCD chaplain Fr Leon Ó Giolláin noted that in many parts of Ireland and the US and beyond, "people have gathered and indeed are gathering with us now through videolink to express their sorrow and share the pain and seek some comfort in solidarity".

Fr O Giolláin talked about the common expectation this week of “some magic formula or a mot juste” from him, something that would cast some light on this tragedy. We have no such word, he said.

But he had one observation: “When we are faced with appalling tragedy . . . our common humanity – and the best of it – bursts forth like a spring in a desert place”.

He talked of "a deep, heartfelt solidarity and compassion . . . across all geographical barriers here and in the US", and all of this, he said, "tells us that it is really love that makes the world go round . . . that love indeed conquers all . . . Nothing in life, in death can take away the love of God . . . There will be a morning after. The sun will rise again."

Solidarity

Amid stirring performances of pieces such as

Amhrán Mhuinse

,

Sé

an Thiarna

, Saint-Saens’s

The Swan

and

Pie Jesu

– sung by soprano

Emily Doyle

– words of solidarity, of love, help and remembrance filled the air.

“If there was anything to be learned in these last few days, it is that life is very fragile and that we need to seize life’s opportunities,” said the dean of graduate studies, Prof Bairbre Redmond, emphasising that the supports were always there for students who needed help, now and in the future.

To the families of the bereaved and those still “courageously fighting” for their lives, “just know that you are close in our every thought and prayer”, said Marcus O’Halloran, president of UCD students’ union.

He finished with an ancient saying: “Say it not in grief that he is no more, but live in thankfulness that he was.”

Prof Deeks concluded his address by quoting from James Joyce, noting that after this week, June 16th - Bloomsday - would be embedded in their memories for a new reason and quoted a poignantly apt line from Finnegans Wake: " 'They lived and laughed and loved and left'. And we will not forget them."