‘Facebook does not provide the answers at this time’ hears funeral

YOUNG people in a Limerick town were bewildered and confused by the death in a road accident last weekend of a 16-year-old school girl, mourners heard yesterday.

At the funeral Mass of Amy St John in Newcastle West, Canon Frank Duhig, PP told the crowded congregation they should not have to cope with such tragedy.

Amy, who lived Woodfield Green, Newcastle West, was a back-seat passenger in a car which collided with another car at Feoghanagh on Saturday last.

Two males in the car were not injured. A couple in the other car also escaped serious injury.

Amy died at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital on Monday where she had been on life support.

Mourners at the funeral Mass were led by her parents, Thomas and Geraldine, and her brother, Ronan, 10.

In his homily, Canon Duhig offered the sympathy of the community to the bereaved family.

Recalling that Amy had sat her Junior Cert last June at Scoil Mhuire agus Ide, he said her results would now have to be claimed by her parents.

He said her young friends were bewildered and confused at this time as they did not expect to be in church yesterday in these circumstances.

But he said that as Amy had passed away, her friends were in the right place, gathered at the Eucharist, with God so close.

He said there was help and her young friends should talk with one another and talk to their parents, even though teenagers often can find tensions when doing so.

Canon Duhig said: “Facebook does not provide the answers at this time.”

He said she had so much potential, God alone only knew what she could have achieved in life.