As they filed slowly into the tiny pre-Famine church in Rosnaree, mourners stopped to look at a montage of photographs of the five girls killed in Monday's school bus crash. Carl O'Brien reports from Navan.
"I remember that," said one schoolgirl, smiling, as she examined a photograph of 18-year-old Claire McCluskey in her deb's dress. "And there's Lisa," said another, pointing to a picture of the 15-year-old heaving with laughter, surrounded by friends.
The schoolgirls smiled against the pain. It is the way much of the community is trying to deal with its grief: sharing memories, in the face of overwhelming sadness, of the five schoolgirls killed in Monday's bus crash in Co Meath.
Hundreds gathered at the Church of the Nativity last night for the removal of Claire McCluskey, in the community's first chance to express its solidarity in grief with the family.
Today, however, will be the hardest day for the townlands of Beauparc, Rosnaree and Yellow Furze as they prepare for the funerals of Claire, Deirdre Scanlon (17), Lisa Callan (15) and Sinéad Ledwidge (15). Many businesses in the town will close later today as the funerals take place. Aimee McCabe (15) will be buried tomorrow.
Parish priest of Rosnaree, Fr John Brogan, said the small, overlapping circles of friends, family and relatives made this one of the most difficult things the community had ever faced.
"These girls were all born here, they were baptised here, went to school, got their Holy Communion and were confirmed here. They went to Mass in the same churches as the local community each week. Now they'll make their final journey from here as well."
Members of Claire McCluskey's school, the Loreto Convent in Navan, along with the local football club and Red Cross, formed a guard of honour along the narrow laneway leading to the church last night.
The Leaving Cert student's parents, Christy and Marie, and her sisters Maria and Anita, hugged some of Claire's friends who gathered outside the church.
When her coffin was raised and guided slowly towards the church, two of her friends, Claudia Hegarty and Dean Ladrigan, sang one of Claire's favourite songs by Green Day, Time of Your Life - a song about breaking up, growing up and moving on.
As the song rang out across the PA system outside, it was too much for many of the schoolgirls who had been standing rigidly at the side of the road. They broke down, gripping each other for support, as tears streamed down their cheeks.
Fr Brogan, faced with the difficult task of finding words to comfort the congregation, said they could find support among each other. "You have to find within yourself the strength and courage from your community and family," he said. "Life has changed, not ended we can walk with her, sharing memories, in the days ahead."