MOURNERS AT the funeral of Shane Clancy in Dublin were told the young man had been “overtaken by darkness” last Sunday and had brought “great tragedy to two other lovely families as well as his own”.
The funeral, at the Church of the Assumption, Dalkey, followed a fatal stabbing attack carried out by Mr Clancy in Bray, Co Wicklow early on Sunday morning.
He killed design student Sebastian Creane (22) and seriously injured his brother Dylan Creane and friend Jennifer Hannigan, before ending his own life.
Parish priest Fr John McDonagh said only a few professionals would ever understand the “destructive frenzy” that had occurred last weekend.
Chief mourners at the funeral were Mr Clancy’s parents, Patrick and Leonie, stepfather Tony, his four brothers, two sisters, grandmother and extended family and friends. Also among the congregation, which overflowed into the church grounds, were many from Trinity College Dublin, where Mr Clancy was about to enter his fourth year, studying Irish and Biblical and theological studies.
Fr Paddy Gleeson, chaplain of the college, was also present.
Prayers were said for the Clancy family, as well as the families of Mr Creane and Ms Hannigan. The congregation was also asked to pray for all those suffering from depression.
Mr Clancy was the oldest of his siblings and was cherished as a “kind and caring brother”, Fr McDonagh said.
He was a non-drinker and had a great enthusiasm for the Irish language and culture, which suggested a young man with respect for tradition, Fr McDonagh said.
Irish prayers and hymns, including Ag Críost an Síol, were included in the service.
Mr Clancy was not afraid of work, mourners were told, and was popular with everyone. He had worked in charity shops and as a volunteer at Sunshine House, the St Vincent de Paul summer camp for Dublin children.
He had planned a trip to Kolkata with fellow students to engage in charitable work, but had reluctantly stepped down.
On his 21st birthday last year he asked guests to donate to charity rather than give him gifts, Fr McDonagh said, which influenced his family to ask for donations to St Vincent de Paul in his name instead of flowers.
He was held in such regard “that last Sunday’s awful news was incredible and very hard, if not impossible, to understand and come to terms with”, the priest said.
“Shane, whom many of you knew and love, was overtaken by a cruel darkness early on Sunday last, bringing great tragedy to two other lovely families as well as his own. We extend our hearts to all three families suffering in this tragedy.”
Fr McDonagh said everyone was “greatly shocked by the psychotic state and the destructive frenzy into which his life suddenly entered so uncharacteristically”.
There might only be a few gifted people in Ireland who in their professional capacity could “interpret and understand what baffles and mystifies the rest of us”.
Although there was no eulogy, Mr Clancy's father Patrick read a poem, Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weepwhen the Mass concluded.
The family chose not to hold a separate removal service. Mr Clancy was brought directly from undertakers Quinns of Glasthule to the funeral Mass and then on to Shanganagh cemetery.
