THE NATIONAL Roads Authority (NRA) should “do its duty” in relation to road safety, according to a priest officiating at one of the funerals for the four NUI Galway students who died in last week’s road collision.
“We have been consumed with sadness over the last few days, but we should also be very, very angry with our leaders and the NRA,” Fr Micheál Ó Braonáin, parish priest in Leitir Móir, Connemara, said yesterday at the funeral for Teresa Molloy (19).
Ms Molloy died last Tuesday night, along with close friends and fellow arts students Sarah Byrne (20) from Headford, Marie Stephanie Ní Conghaíle (19) from Rossaveal and Sorcha Rose McLoughlin (19) from Mulgannon in Wexford after a collision with a truck on the Galway-Mayo border.
Their friend Michelle O’Donnell (21) from Inis Mór, daughter of the Aran island lifeboat coxswain, is still critical in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin.
“I’ve no doubt in my mind if that 8km stretch of road between Ballindine and Tuam was of a standard in keeping with the rest of the roadway from Charlestown to Galway, we would not be grieving the loss of four very special young women this day,” Fr Ó Braonáin said.
“The National Roads Authority should do their duty. We ask authority figures to belatedly respect the memory of the four girls by doing their duty not in 10 years’ time or 20 . . . they should start now,” said Fr Ó Braonáin.
He said that Teresa had been a wonderful person, very active in the local community in the youth club and with Leitir Móir GAA club, while each year she organised the collection of hundreds of euro for the third world.
Teresa, who is survived by her parents Pat and Cathy and sisters Jamie, Susan and Christina, had hoped to return to Leitir Móir as a teacher when she had completed her studies.
Sarah Byrne (20) was a “lovely girl” with a “lovely life ahead of her”, Fr James O’Grady, parish priest of Headford, Co Galway, said at her funeral Mass on Saturday.
The thoughts of the entire community of Headford were with Ms Byrne’s parents, Tom and Tina and her brother Stephen and extended family, Fr O’Grady told hundreds of mourners at St Mary’s Church, Headford.
He called for prayers for the families of Sarah’s three friends, who also died, and for Michelle O’Donnell (21) in Beaumont Hospital. Members of Ms O’Donnell’s family, from the Aran islands, attended the service for Ms Byrne.
Tributes by family members and friends recalled a fun-loving girl who “made friends easily”.
The family of Marie Stephanie Ní Conghaíle had “been asked to carry a very heavy cross,” Fr Seán McHugh said at her funeral in Rossaveel, Co Galway, on Saturday.
Hundreds of mourners packed Cill Treasa Church to console her parents Noel and Noirín, and her brothers Ciarán and Pádraig, as she was laid to rest at Moyrus cemetery.
Ms Ní Conghaíle’s colleagues from the Naomh Anna GAA club in Leitir Móir formed a guard of honour for the coffin.
Hundreds of people also gathered at Clonard Church in Wexford on Saturday to pay their respects to Sorcha Rose McLoughlin (19), who is survived by her parents, Tom and Rose, her brothers Cian and Martin, and her boyfriend Eoin.
Fr Martin Doyle said that Ms McLoughlin had “a natural physical beauty”, but that her beauty was deeper, in the sense of her loving, caring nature.
Bishop of Ferns Denis Brennan also expressed his deepest sympathy to her family and friends.
Her father, Dr Tom McLoughlin, read from William Shakespeare's verse, Fear No Moreas he did yesterday in Derreens Church, Achill, Co Mayo, before his daughter's burial on the island.
- Sally O'Brien (58), a grandmother who died in a separate road crash on Tuesday morning in Williamstown, Co Galway, was buried in St Patrick's Church, Glenamaddy on Saturday.