Castlebar falls silent in grief at removal of brothers to local church

People lined the streets of Castlebar in small, prayerful groups yesterday evening as the remains of brothers Jackie and Tom Blaine were brought in a pair of hearses to the Church of the Holy Rosary.

Mourners for the men, who were found dead after being attacked in their home last week, formed a guard of honour on the mile-long journey from Thomas Street Funeral Home through Main Street and Market Square.

The mood was sombre, the silence only punctuated by footfall and the low rumble of the hearse engines.

The mayor Noleen Heston led the cortege, while undertaker Michael "Rocky" Moran, in whose pub Jackie Blaine had been served countless complementary mugs of tea over the decades, went ahead of the procession diverting traffic.

Although the evening was bright and sunny, the atmosphere was melancholy, reflecting the brutal nature of Jackie and Tom’s deaths.

At about midday, there was a poignant moment as the hearses stopped for a moment at the small, two-storey house in New Antrim Street where Jackie and Tom lived for the best part of 30 years.

There they had been well looked after by neighbours and had been provided with a local meals on wheels service which provided daily dinners.

Local curate Fr Michael Farragher led the prayers in the funeral home and again in the church.

Since the Garda crime scene restrictions were lifted at the weekend, the house has become a shrine to the men. People have been calling day and night to lay floral tributes and to sign a book of condolences.

Their cousin Paul Dunne said yesterday that he and his family had been deeply moved by the outpouring of sympathy and the respectful silence which had been observed all weekend as young and old gathered in daylight and throughout the hours of darkness to pay their respects.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, whose constituency offices are in Tucker Street, adjacent to New Antrim Street where the Blaines lived, is expected to attend today’s funeral Mass, where Fr Farragher will be the main celebrant.

The brothers will be buried alongside their late mother, Delia, in the New Cemetery following Requiem Mass at 11am.