THE WORDS of a time-worn Inis Meáin prayer were invoked at the weekend funeral of islander Ciarán Dara Ó Conghaile (36), who was shot dead in Boston a week ago: “Go bhóire Dia orainn i gconaí, ní le h-aonduine an lá atá amárach . . .”
“May the Lord protect us/ nobody owns tomorrow,” was how Fr Joe Jennings translated the prayer for those who had travelled across the Atlantic to support Mr Ó Conghaile’s family.
It was a “great solace” to his parents and siblings that the tiny church of Séipeal Mhuire gan Smál agus Eoin Báiste should be so packed, just as it was at a service in Boston last week, Fr Jennings said.
Fr Jennings – parish priest of both Inis Meáin and Inis Oírr – told the congregation that the US ambassador to the Holy See, Raymond Flynn, had attended the prayers for Mr Ó Conghaile in Boston last Thursday. It was a measure of the “respect and honour” in which the family was held that Mr Flynn should have been present, Fr Jennings said.
Few words could explain the “tragic death”, Fr Jennings continued, referring to “courage and hope” and the support that faith could try to give at this time.
Mr Ó Conghaile, known as “Kiwi” to his many North American friends who found it an easier way to pronounce his name, was now “in heaven with his brother”, he said.
Micheál Dara, Mr Ó Conghaile’s older sibling, had been on his motor cycle and waiting to take a line from the ferry in a heavy swell in November 2000, when he was swept into the sea. It was a year before his remains were found.
Concelebrating with Fr Jennings were Franciscan Padraig Coleman OFM, and Inis Mór parish priest Fr Micheál Ó Mainnín. Chief mourners were Mr Ó Conghaile’s parents, Micheál and Ána, brother Pól Dara, sisters Deirdre and Mary Ann.
Among the sympathisers were neighbours from the other two islands, relatives and friends of fellow construction workers who knew Mr Ó Conghaile in the US, and work colleagues of Mary Ann, who is vice-principal of Coláiste Gobnait on Inis Óirr and previously taught in Cork.
Mr Ó Conghaile had been attending an Irish heritage festival in Boston and was close to his home when he was shot in the chest. He was found by an off-duty fireman. Boston police have been following several lines of inquiry, including a robbery of a woman at gunpoint on a street close by that night in the Dorchester suburb.
Mr Ó Conghaile was buried beside his brother Michéal Dara in reilig Inis Meáin overlooking the Galway and Clare coastlines.