Mourning families unite in grief

RELATIVES on both sides of Saturday’s murder-suicide in Clonroche have united to help deal with the loss of the Flood family.

On Sunday at 8.30pm John and Kathleen Kehoe hosted a mass in their home to pray for all four members of the family.

Just 39 hours earlier they had lost their daughter Lorraine Flood, 38, and their grandchildren Mark, 6, and Julie, 5, at the hands of their son-in-law Diarmuid Flood, 41, who also took his own life.

The Kehoes invited Diarmuid’s parents, Sean and Kathleen Flood, to the service, which was celebrated by parish curate Fr Richard Redmond.

The mass was also attended by other members of the Flood and Kehoe families, as well as neighbours and friends.

A spokesman for both families, Councillor Denis Kennedy said they were two very large but very close families who would continue to support each other.

He also asked the media and the public to respect the families’ privacy at this time.

On behalf of the families, Cllr Kennedy said: “Our two families, so well known and loved by each other, must now begin the process of rebuilding our lives shattered by this tragedy.”

He said there was no question of the Kehoes asking for separate funeral arrangements for Diarmuid.

Cllr Kennedy, who is related to the Kehoes through marriage, said the main problem would be how two very large families would be accommodated in the small church of St Clement’s.

The closeness of the two families in the aftermath of Saturday’s deaths is a departure from similar tragedies in the past year.

When Adrian Dunne murdered his wife and two children in Monageer last April there was an argument between the two families. Mr Dunne was eventually buried in the parish of Cloughbawn, but the rest of his family were taken to his wife Ciara’s family plot in Donegal.

Similarly, after Arthur McElhill killed his partner Lorraine McGovern and their five children in Omagh, her family refused to allow him be buried with their grandchildren.

Last night, Tector’s funeral home in Clonroche said no funeral arrangements had been finalised and they are dependent on the outcome of the postmortem examination.