Islamic centre acknowledges support

HUNDREDS OF mourners filled the Clonskeagh mosque in Dublin yesterday to say funeral prayers for the two teenage girls who were killed in a road crash in Co Galway earlier this week.

Aya Chenneti (13), from the South Circular Road, and Eman Ayati (12), from Rathfarnham, died on Tuesday when the people-carrier they were travelling in crashed at Kilrickle, between Ballinasloe and Loughrea.

They were part of a youth group from the Islamic Cultural Centre in Clonskeagh on their way to an adventure centre in Killary in Connemara.

After prayers led by Imam Hussein Halawa, the cultural centre's director, Dr Nooh Al Kaddo, spoke on behalf of the bereaved families and thanked all those who had offered their condolences and support in recent days.

He said the centre had received messages of sympathy from many parts of Ireland, and thanked President Mary McAleese, who had contacted the centre after the girls' deaths and was represented yesterday by Capt Lorraine Fahy, and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who had also offered his condolences.

"The whole Irish society has been helping us all the way . . . This is a moment of solidarity with our community, and we thank those who have given support," he said.

After prayers, the two coffins were hoisted aloft and carried quietly from the mosque. Outside, under brilliant sunshine, the crowd of mourners parted to usher the single hearse soundlessly from the complex.

Flowers were left at the front entrance to the mosque, some with messages to the girls' families, others addressed simply to "the Islamic community".

Among the dozens of mourners signing a book of condolence were Aya's classmates and teachers from St Louis' school in Rathmines.

Summayah Kenna, the cultural centre's spokeswoman, said the two girls were very well known and loved in the community, and that many were traumatised by the tragedy. Counselling is being made available to members of the group at Clonskeagh this weekend.

Thirty-two people were travelling with the youth group to Connemara on Tuesday. It is believed that the people-carrier, which was part of a three-vehicle convoy, crashed into a traffic island, struck a pole and left the road outside the village of Kilrickle on the N6 Dublin-Galway road.

Three other members of the youth group remained in critical condition in Temple Street and Our Lady's hospitals in Dublin last night.

However, one youth leader was discharged yesterday and another is due to leave hospital today.

Eman was buried after final prayers at Newcastle Cemetery yesterday afternoon, while Aya's body will be flown for burial in Algeria, her parents' country of origin.