TWO GRIEVING Donegal families made an impassioned plea to young people yesterday not to “bring home to their parents” the pain and grief of road death.
The appeal came at an emotional joint funeral for friends Gary McLaughlin and Darren Downey, both from Burt, Co Donegal, who died in a single-vehicle crash in the early hours of last Sunday.
Local curate Fr Michael Porter told mourners at their Requiem Mass in St Aengus Church, Burt, that the McLaughlin and Downey families had asked him to relay a message to their sons’ friends and all young people present.
“They want me to say, not to do what their sons did and not to bring home to your parents and families the pain and grief they are suffering now,” said Fr Porter.
The men, who both played with the local GAA club, had, earlier on the night of their deaths, attended the 50th birthday party for Gary McLaughlin’s father, Eunan.
“Sadly, when everyone else in the McLaughlin house went to bed and Evelyn thought Gary and Darren were safe and sound in the house too, the boys, for whatever reason, decided to go out again and got into a car.
“The boys did not intend for Eunan’s birthday celebrations to end the way they did and they wouldn’t have ended as they did, if the boys had stayed at home after the party,” said Fr Porter.
Gardaí continue to appeal for witnesses to the crash that occurred some time between 6am and 7.30am on the main N13 Derry to Letterkenny Road at Newtowncunningham.
Meanwhile, yesterday’s funeral was said by locals to be one of the largest ever seen in the area.
Mr McLaughlin’s remains were the first to be carried into the church, followed by Mr Downey’s. Members of Burt GAA Club, where the men played both hurling and football, formed a guard of honour, as did pupils from their former secondary school, Scoil Mhuire, in Buncrana. In his homily, Fr Porter described the friends as “likeable, loveable, lively rascals”.
“They were always prepared to give 100 per cent on or off the pitch. They enjoyed messing about but had their serious side, too. They raised a lot of money for charity, especially for the hospice and cancer care. They were good boys,” he said.
The friends were buried in adjoining graves in Burt Cemetery.