‘Máire reached out and touched our lives in different ways’

THEY came in their hundreds to mourn a woman who was universally loved and liked for her caring nature.

Schoolchildren of all ages, many accompanied by their mothers who were also once pupils of Máire Buckley, paid tribute to the former teacher yesterday. She was killed during a dramatic high-speed chase on the streets of Dublin last Sunday. More than 700 mourners crammed into Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Seán McDermott Street in Dublin yesterday morning for the funeral mass of the 62-year-old community liaison teacher.

Although the dead woman lived in the north Dublin suburb of Donnycarney, the fact that her family chose to hold her Requiem Mass near the schools where she taught powerfully underscored the strong bond between the teacher and the inner-city community where she worked for over two decades.