The three tiny white coffins were so small you could have tucked them under your arm. Yet the men who carried the remains of little Amber, Megan and Ryan Quinn were staggering, not from their weight but from grief. On a bitingly cold New Year's Eve morning the weather did little to comfort the mourners of the three children from Finglas, Dublin, who died in a car fire just after Christmas.
The local curate, Father Declan Blake, said he had no words to ease the loss suffered by the family. "Yet the presence of so many people here today must provide some comfort to the family in its grief," he told the congregation.
Sunflowers and cuddly toys bedecked the coffins in the Church of the Annunciation. Friends remembered Amber (5) as a "chatty and friendly" girl and her devotion to her sister, Megan, four years old on the day she died, and brother, Ryan (2).
Gardai believe the fire which killed the children in their father's mini-van last Saturday may have been caused by a car cigarette lighter or a box of matches, but they say forensic tests have proved inconclusive. Their father, Mr John Quinn, was in their mother's home in Dunsink Drive when the fire started.
Hundreds of friends, family and neighbours in the Finglas West community attended the funeral. Gardai from Finglas station placed a wreath, and the President, Mrs McAleese, was represented by her aide-de-camp, Capt Pauline O'Connell.
Father Blake urged mourners to provide the family with the support they would need to survive their tragic loss. "But remember that life has changed, not ended," he added.
A family friend read a poem, Three Precious Angels, which was left anonymously outside the children's house.
