Monaghan deaths:There was only one topic of conversation for people leaving morning Mass at St Mary's Church in the Monaghan village of Threemilehouse yesterday.
They stood about in huddles talking about Saturday morning's crash that claimed the lives of four young men and left a fifth in a critical condition.
Inside the church, parish priest Fr Joe McCluskey was contemplating the funeral arrangements for the men who lived within a mile and a half of each other.
The youngest of the four, Brian O'Neill (19) will be buried after funeral Mass at 11am in Threemilehouse today. First cousins Gary McCormick (20) and Ciarán Hagan (20) will be buried after 1pm Mass today, while Dermot Thornton (21) will be buried tomorrow after 11am Mass.
Their friend John McQuillan (27) was still in a critical condition in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda last night. He was a rear seat passenger in the car driven by Dermot Thornton that carried four men. Ciarán Hagan was travelling alone in the other car when the two Volkswagen Golfs crashed in a head-on collision, less than a mile outside Threemilehouse.
Insp Pat McMorrrow attended the scene soon afterwards. "I would say it was one of the most horrific accidents that gardaí have had to investigate in recent times," he said. "Death was instant. They didn't have a chance at all."
He said there were very difficult scenes as families arrived and the news was broken to them. "You can imagine the trauma at the scene," he said. "It was very bad."
Dermot Thornton's parents were on holiday in Lanzarote when they received the news while Ciarán Hagan's father was in France.
It was thought that the men had been socialising in the Threemile Inn in the village earlier that night, celebrating the next-day wedding of a friend. The wedding went ahead as planned in Northern Ireland on Saturday.
At Mass yesterday, Fr McCluskey prayed for the men, for the recovery of John McQuillan and for his mother Angela.
This is not the first tragedy to hit the McQuillan family. John's father was killed in a construction accident a few years ago and his brother was involved in a motorbike crash.
Fr McCluskey said he didn't think the impact of the deaths had fully sunk in yet. "They were all in their prime of youth and in their prime of health," he said. "It's not easy."
The deaths had numbed the local community, said Fianna Fáil councillor Benny Kiernan who is a former chairman of Seán McDermott's football club and knew all the men through his years of coaching.
"They were wonderful lads, lively lads, full of life," he said."What I enjoyed about them was that, when I got onto the council, some people don't want to be seen talking to you, but them lads would always say 'hiya Benny'. It was a good sign about them. I would look upon that as being respectful."
Dermot Thornton and Gary McCormick had both worked in Treanor Fireplaces while Ciarán Hagan had just returned from France where he was working for a local company. Brian O'Neill was attending Letterkenny Institute of Technology.
Danny Clerkin, chairman of Seán McDermott's football club cut short his trip to Boston when he heard about the incident. He was at the Railway Cup final and said a moment's silence was held when the word came through. "It struck home, the enormity of what had happened when it was mentioned so far away."
When he saw the men's friends at Mass yesterday, he half expected to see the four men with them. "It must be hitting them terribly. They are only youngsters themselves."
As neighbours queued to visit the families of the deceased yesterday, bouquets of flowers were piling up at the scene of the crash. "'I'm going to miss ya lads," one card said. "Can't describe the pain I'm feeling to have you taken away like this."