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The funerals of two teenagers who were killed in a car crash when returning from work in Co Donegal this week were reminded of the “preciousness of human life” on Friday.
Alana Harkin and Thomas Gallagher, both 18 years of age, had been part of a group returning from work at Simpson’s Bar and Restaurant in Carndonagh in the early hours of Monday morning when the car in which they were travelling left the road and crashed in a wooded area at Terrawee, Gleneely around 12.30am.
Both Alana and Thomas were killed while another friend, a young man in his late teens, was rushed to hospital and treated for non life-threatening injuries.
The outpouring of grief building up to Friday’s funerals has been palpable on the Inishowen Peninsula which has sadly become accustomed to such road tragedies.
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Many in these close-knit villages and small towns knew both Alana and Thomas with many attending both funerals which took place at separate times.
The first funeral was that of Alana whose funeral Mass took place at St Mary’s Church in Bocan, Culdaff.
In his homily, Fr James McGonagle said that Alana, in her short 18 years on earth, certainly made her mark.
The best word to describe Alana, Fr McGonagle said, was “magnetism”.
“Everyone was drawn towards her, young and old,” he said. “She was a live wire, a pocket dynamo, a ball of fire, a prankster.”
On her tragic passing, Fr McGonagle said the death of a loved one, especially the accidental death of an 18-year-old girl, was very hard to take. “Especially when that young person had a world at her feet with all kinds of dreams and hope for the future.”
After her funeral Mass Alana was laid to rest in the adjoining cemetery.
Many mourners then made their way across the peninsula on the 18km journey to St Mary’s Church in Ballybrack, Moville to pay their final respects to Thomas.
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Fr Eddie Gallagher told mourners that Thomas’s funeral “reminds us of the preciousness of human life and how things can change so drastically for us in the blink of an eye”.
“In the first hour of Monday, life changed and will never be the same for Thomas and Alana’s families.”
He said that, quite simply, everyone at his funeral Mass wanted to remember Thomas at his best.
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Fr Gallagher added, “He packed a lot into 18 years of life. He was looking after everyone else from the moment he was born. He was protective of you all. When he was told he was having a baby sister, he literally jumped for joy. He was so happy that his family felt so complete and he happily walked Emily around the estate in a pram.
“Thomas understood how important it is to live each day as a new gift from God.”
Outside the funeral Mass, hundreds of mourners waited in the cold November air as Thomas was led to the adjoining cemetery for burial.