The two 16-year-old girls killed in this week's horrific crash on the main Dublin to Belfast road were buried yesterday. Father Patrick Hughes said Sarah Jane McKenna, of Rathmullen, Drogheda and Brenda O'Rourke, of Moneymore, Drogheda "were the best of friends; they were full of love, were jovial and enjoyed life to the full. They were thoughtful and considerate and you question why they had to die."
They were backseat passengers in the Vauxhall Astra which collided head-on with a lorry on a bend at Killineer, two miles north of the town just before 11 p.m. on Monday. The lorry driver and all five occupants of the car were killed.
Father Hughes read an excerpt from Frank McCourt's book Angela's Ashes, in which the author's father prays for his dead child and asks why he had to die. "It is an expression of the feelings and emotions we have all felt since this terrible accident. Feelings of disbelief, bewilderment, loneliness, a sense of being let down by God and questioning why this had to happen," he said.
Teenage friends of the girls and some of their former Youthreach colleagues walked on either side of the coffins. Each carried a single red rose. Sarah Jane McKenna was buried in St Peter's cemetery and Brenda O'Rourke was buried in Calvary cemetery.
They were the last of the victims to be buried. On Thursday the funerals took place in Drogheda of Anthony O'Brien (27), and Daniel Johnson (26), both of Rathmullen, Drogheda and Albert Wilson (26), of Ballsgrove. The lorry driver, John Myres (26), was buried in Dundalk.
The Garda investigation is continuing.