The three victims of the Cashel road tragedy – Tom and Bridgie Reilly and three-year-old grandson Tom – will not be remembered as statistics but as real people who brought joy and happiness to their loved ones, mourners at their funeral Mass have heard.
Cashel parish priest Fr Enda Brady said the single-vehicle crash in the Windmill area of the town on Tuesday – in which Tom (3), Mr Reilly (45) and Ms Reilly (46) died, and their son Tom jnr (22) and his wife Diane (22) were injured – had far-reaching repercussions for many.
Tom jnr was too ill to attend the church, but Fr Brady greeted Diane, who had earlier been discharged from Tipperary University Hospital. Arrangements were made earlier for Tom jnr to say his farewell to the couple’s only son from his bed in the Clonmel hospital before the little boy’s remains were brought to Cashel for the funeral Mass.
Fr Brady also welcomed the late Mr and Ms Reilly’s other surviving eight children – Shannon, Annemarie, Jimmy, Willie, Chloe, Britney, Kevin and Kelly – to the Church of St John the Baptist on Friar Street.
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Also attending were Mr Reilly’s parents, Willie and Nellie Reilly from Cashel, and Bridgie’s parents, Tom and Hannie Purcell from Clonmel, as well as the couple’s many siblings and relatives. Members of the Traveller community from all over Ireland and local members of the settled community also turned out in large numbers.
Fr Brady thanked President Michael D Higgins for attending, saying his “presence here today is truly appreciated and his support to the Reilly family and to the people of Tipperary this week will never be forgotten”. He who also praised gardaí, firefighters, paramedics and hospital staff for their heroic efforts after the crash.
Comdt Claire Mortimer, aide-de-camp to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, was also present as was Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Dr Kieran O’Reilly, who had confirmed many of the Reilly children.
The coffins of Mr and Ms Reilly flanked that of their grandson, with each bearing a photograph of the deceased within. Looking down from the lectern, Fr Brady recalled the gospel passage that mourners had just listened to about how Joseph and Mary had left their home in Nazareth to go to Bethlehem for a census.
“They wanted to count the people. Similarly, in our times we continue to have counts, statistics and numbers produced every so often,” he said. “And each year, among these figures, we are given the number of people who die on our roads. When we hear these, our reaction can be a moment where we say ‘God bless them’ and then move on with our lives.
“But when this awful situation lands on your doorstep, then you know these are not just numbers, there is a face, there is a heart, there is a personality, there is an individual. Unfortunately, Tom and Bridget Reilly, and their grandson Tom, have joined the number for this year,” Fr Brady said.
“But we don’t gather here today to remember them as a number. Tom and Bridget’s children remember the parents who loved and cared for them and their nephew, who, in three short years, endeared himself to the family.”
He said parents, siblings and extended family would long think about Mr and Ms Reilly and little Tom. “They remember the way they laughed and cried, the way they interacted, the way they were – these are the traits and qualities that we remember today as we celebrate the funeral Mass for a small boy and his grandparents.”
“Sadness is when we have one coffin and a grieving family in the church. Today’s gathering of three coffins, which includes the remains of a three-year-old, have left a family shattered, a community numbed and people grappling for words,” he said.
Mr Reilly was one of a family of 11 and Bridget was one of a family of 18 and many of their relatives wore black T-shirts bearing photos of the couple and their grandson and the words “Will be Missed Forever”.
Two of Mr Reilly’s sisters, Margaret and Ellen, lit four candles – three representing the three rear seat passengers who died in the crash, with the fourth for those injured in it, Tom jnr and Diane.
Uncles and aunts comforted Mr and Ms Reilly’s children, who range in age from 22 to eight, as the three coffins were shouldered from the church to horse-drawn hearses which brought them on their final journey to Cormac’s Cemetery on the outskirts of town.
Dressed all in black, Diane Reilly clutched her son’s favourite toy, a monkey, and a pair of his wellington boots as she led the funeral cortege behind the hearses as they set off in scorching heat along the route to the cemetery near the family home at Waller’s Lot.
President Higgins sympathised with the grieving family before their three relatives were laid to rest in a family plot beside the youngest of Mr and Ms Reilly’s 10 children, Baby Ned, who died in 2017.
