As family members travel to Rome on Saturday evening to identify the bodies of Paul (60) and Mary O’Reilly (59), local Fine Gael Cllr Jim Moore, a cousin of Mrs O’Reilly, spoke of “a long journey of trying to come to terms with the shock of it all”.
The O’Reilly’s sons, Darren and Andrew, who arrived home on Friday afternoon, will be accompanied by other family members as they embark on a journey that arrived totally out of the blue.
Their parents had travelled to Rome on Tuesday for a week long holiday but were struck by a car as they crossed the road to a bus stop, dying instantly at the scene. The crash occurred at a busy intersection near a campsite on the outskirts of the city.
Having taken a work break for their holiday, the grandparents had planned on taking their grandchildren to Disneyland on their return.
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With the rural parish of Kilmore still in a state of silent shock, locals and visitors both to Kilmore village, where the couple lived, and the seaside resort of Kilmore Quay, have been signing books of condolence in memory of the couple.
Parish priest Fr Pat Mernagh said the books were made available in St Mary’s Parish Church, Kilmore, and in Stella Maris Hall in Kilmore Quay, so the community can “reflect on the lives of two beautiful people”.
He said there had been a constant stream of people coming to pay tribute to the couple who were “well connected in the community”.
The local community centre, where Mrs O’Reilly worked, closed on Friday but opened for the weekend from 10am to 2pm for tea and coffee as a place for locals to gather to remember the couple.
“Mary is part of the family down there,” said Fr Mernagh.
Mr Moore, said: “I suppose the words ‘stunned’ and ‘shocked’ don’t adequately cover the feelings that have developed since 4pm to 5pm on Thursday afternoon when the family were informed of the double tragedy,” he said.
“This is a traumatic incident for everyone involved.”
Both sons of the couple, Darren who works in Toulouse, France, and Andrew and his grandchildren, who live in Bray, Co Wicklow, arrived home on Friday where they were consoled by grieving family members, relatives and neighbours.
“We are hoping that the postmortem or autopsy will be completed on Monday. It’s a weekend but it’s still giving us an opportunity to get our heads around matters and deal with what has been presented to us.
“We are hoping for progress when the family members travel to Rome but we really don’t know when the bodies will be repatriated,” Mr Moore said.
Fr Mernagh said the couple had been “looking forward to having a little holiday. It’s such a tragic, tragic situation”.
“We are all stunned. People are devastated. It’s a terrible blow to a small parish community.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it is providing consular assistance to the family of the couple.
The O’Reilly’s were killed crossing the road on the Via Cristoforo Colombo in the south of Rome near the Presidential Palace, Castel Porziano, shortly before 1pm on Thursday.
The driver of the car, a 54-year-old man from Rome, remained at the scene and tried to “lend assistance” but both were pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver is believed to have suffered minor injuries in the collision and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
