As a community grieved for a mother killed by the driver of a stolen car last weekend, a 19-year-old man gave himself up at a Garda station in the city.
In a moving ceremony a large congregation gathered at the Church of the Assumption in Ballyphehane, on the city's outskirts, to grieve for Mrs June Atkins (42) who was killed as she crossed the road after an evening out with her husband, John.
She was hit by a speeding car that had been stolen earlier in the city. She left behind her husband, John, and children David (17), Jill (15) and Geoffrey (8).
Local taxi-men and gardai came to the incident almost immediately, where a 26-year-old man was detained. He had been on temporary release from Cork Prison and is now back there. The driver of the car and the front-seat passenger had fled.
It is understood that a local priest persuaded the driver of the stolen car to give himself up. It appears that this man also was on temporary release from prison and last night was back there.
At the funeral Mass in Cork yesterday, attended by the Bishop of Cork and Cloyne, Dr John Buckley, Father Tadgh O Mathuna said they had gathered in celebration of a woman who had lived a great and loving life, not only for her family but for a wider circle of friends. "She was full of goodness and kindness and showed that not only at home but elsewhere."
In a line from the preface of the Mass he said: "The darkness of death gives way to the promise of immortality."