Arklow was experiencing some thing akin to the grief of the people of Omagh, a curate said yesterday as hundreds turned out in the Co Wicklow town for the first of the funerals of Monday's accident victims.
Five people died when a lorry travelling south along the N11 at Kilbride was involved in a collision with a minibus taking children to St Catherine's special school, near Newtownmountkennedy.
Yesterday as three of the victims - the driver of the minibus, Mr Jackie Kavanagh (51), and school friends Robert Cullen (11) and Kevin O'Leary (10) - were buried in separate funerals, Father Alex Conlan said the people of Arklow were in deep shock.
Speaking at the funeral of Kevin O'Leary at Templerainey Church in the parish of Avoca, Father Conlan said the community was trying to rationalise how something they might expect to read about was happening to them.
He asked for prayers for Mr Kavanagh, whose funeral was conducted by a retired parish priest, Father John Piert, at Johnstown outside Arklow earlier yesterday, and for sisters Ms Sharon Sheehan and Ms Fionnuala Byrne, whose funerals will be held at Templerainey this morning.
He also asked the congregation to pray for the two boys still in hospital, Jason Hayden Reid (10) and Anthony McDonald (17).
Referring to Kevin O'Leary and Robert Cullen, Father Conlan said: "The death of a child is every parent's nightmare and goes against the laws of nature."
He had spoken to Kevin on Sunday evening, the day before the accident. "Kevin was himself, laughing and delighted to be going to his new school where he had jelly and ice cream every day, instead of just on Sundays like most children.
"He was a happy child, content with a bucket and spade and not just a special child - all children are special but Kevin was extra special," he said.
At the church, as at the funerals of the other accident victims, a floral tribute was delivered from the staff of St Catherine's school where the minibus was headed before the fatal crash.
An expression of sympathy was also sent by the President, Mrs McAleese, who was represented at the funerals by her aides de camp.
There were moving scenes in Bandon in west Cork last night at the removals of two young friends killed when their car and another collided outside the town on Monday night. Gerard Coakley (19) will be buried following Requiem Mass at St Patrick's Church, Bandon, at noon today. His friend, Timothy Holland Jnr (19) will be buried following Requiem Mass also at St Patrick's at 3 p.m. today.