One hour after Brian O'Neill's coffin was carried down the aisle of St Mary's Church in Threemilehouse, Co Monaghan yesterday, the coffins of his two friends Gary McCormick and Ciarán Hagan arrived at the door of the same church.
The three young men were buried in the adjoining cemetery, about a mile from the scene on the Monaghan-Threemilehouse road where they died in a two-car collision early on Saturday morning.
The fourth man, Dermot Thornton, will be buried after funeral Mass this morning.
The small church grounds were never going to be able to cope with the crowds so the nearby Seán McDermott sports grounds were opened to provide parking as hundreds of cars began arriving in the village yesterday morning.
Local people acted as stewards as more than 1,000 people packed into the small church for the two funerals.
First cousins Gary McCormick and Ciarán Hagan, both 20, shared their funeral Mass and were buried yards away from Brian O'Neill.
A guard of honour was formed for Mr O'Neill's coffin by men wearing Seán McDermott club jackets and black armbands. About 10 motorbikes provided a guard of honour for the cousins' funeral, as Mr Hagan was a keen biker and rallying enthusiast.
Parish priest Fr Joe McCluskey said the four deaths had "stunned and shocked" the whole community.
Seeing the aftermath of the accident was "the most terrible scene I have been called to since my ordination."
"There is no way that a priest or anyone else can be prepared to witness such a tragic scene," he said.
In recent days, a strange quiet calm had fallen on Threemilehouse, but that was as it should be, he said, as four young people had had their lives cut short.
"It seems an awful waste of life," Fr McCluskey said.
"I'm quite sure that, for the five people who set out on their journey on Saturday morning, it didn't even enter their minds that shortly afterwards the tragic events would have taken place."
Because they could not imagine such a happening, they probably never even considered the grief and sorrow that would follow for their families, he said.
"We all have this idea that accidents happen to others."
Fr McCluskey officiated at the funeral Mass of Brian O'Neill (19), the youngest of the four men.
The mourners were led by his parents Brian and Eileen and brother and sister Shane and Sinéad.
Mr O'Neill was remembered by Fr McCluskey as a keen sportsman and a friendly lad. He praised the friendship and happiness that he had brought to his family and friends.
"Brian was always so friendly to meet and was so courteous," he said. Fr McCluskey said the business studies student at Letterkenny IT had had a bright future ahead of him.
Cousins Gary McCormick and Ciarán Hagan were like brothers, with just eight months separating them, Fr Martin O'Reilly, youth director with the diocese of Clogher, told the congregation at their funeral.
They were the first-born in both families, went to the local primary school together and continued to St Macartan's College in Monaghan together.
They were "blackguards in a good sense", he said. "Blackguards in a sense where they played tricks. Blackguards in the sense where they had, I suppose, jokes.
"Blackguards in the sense where they may have probably pointed the finger and had a few laughs at others because often times they knew the finger would be pointing back at them."
Mr McCormick worked at Treanor Fireplaces and enjoyed working with his hands, Fr O'Reilly said.
He would always talk to you, and was never inhibited by who you were with.
Mr Hagan had been working in France with the local McNally Crane Hire company.
Although he had only been abroad for a short time, he still found time to come home last Thursday in preparation for his friend's wedding on Saturday, Fr O'Reilly said. All four men had been due to attend the wedding, which went ahead as planned.
Fr O'Reilly expressed his condolences to Mr Hagan's parents Paul and Kathleen and his siblings Gráinne, Shane and Michaela, and to Mr McCormick's parents Jannette and Eugene, and siblings Aoife, Christopher, Brian and Conor.