THE two women murdered in a frenzied knife attack in Dublin last week were "full of goodness, beauty and innocence", mourners at their funeral heard yesterday.
Miss Sylvia Shields (57) and Miss Mary Callinan (61) were outpatients at St Brendan's psychiatric hospital in Grangegorman who lived in a house run by the Eastern Health Board in Orchard View, opposite the hospital.
Over 200 mourners crammed into the small St Dymphna's Chapel in the hospital grounds yesterday for the joint service. Wreaths and bunches of flowers were lined along the front of the altar and a single red rose rested on Miss Callinan's coffin with the inscription: "Mary, love John".
The mourners included nursing staff, patients and outpatients, Miss Shields's brother, Rourke, her sister, Ms Stella Nolan, and her nieces and nephews. Miss Callinan does not have any surviving relatives.
Ms Nolan described her sister as "a once beautiful butterfly in the garden of life". The youngest in her family, she had been a "happy and delightful child" who sparkled as a young adult and enjoyed tennis, music and chess.
She attended boarding school after her father died and had achieved high marks in her Civil Service exams before working in the evaluation office for 20 years.
When she became ill, she had changed from "being an extrovert to a solitary person". Miss Shields had improved greatly during her stay in the house at Orchard View, she said.
A nursing officer from the Orchard View Hostel, next door to the house where the two women lived, spoke on behalf of Miss Callinan.
Mr Jimmy Leslie said Miss Callinan was an only child and her mother had had problems coping after her father's death. She had been hospitalised in 1966 and discharged into the community in 1987. She had a very special friend called John with whom she used to socialise. She loved life and had a very independent mind. Her main regret was that she had no family of her own. "What she lacked in her own family she made up for in extended family", he said.
The chaplain, Father Piaras O Duill, described the murder of the women as a "horrendous and senseless act". They were well loved and full of the simple goodness of ordinary people which went unnoticed in the reality of life. "Their goodness, beauty and innocence were hardly noticed",
Their death was a test of faith, and of our capacity to cope with the unfairness of life, he said. The best recognition and respect for them was to have their funeral in the chapel where they often prayed near the statue of the crucified Christ.
The funeral was also attended by the 46-year-old woman who shared the Orchard View house with Miss Callinan and Miss Shields and who found their mutilated bodies early last Friday. The woman, who was accompanied at the funeral by two nurses, has since been readmitted to St Brendan's.
Miss Shields was buried in Dean's Grange Cemetery. Miss Callinan was cremated in Glasnevin Crematorium.