‘We pray that no more tragedy will befall any of our community’

After a week of almost unbearable heartache, some 2,000 mourners, many of whom had attended multiple requiem Masses in the previous days, gathered for one more time to say farewell to 23-year-old James McEleney who lost his life with seven others in last Sunday night’s devastating car crash.

Parish priest of Clonmany, Fr Fintan Diggin, who officiated at three of those funerals, could see the pain and exhaustion in the faces before him. “Hopefully these are the last such scenes of tragedy, that we will never experience them again. Let this be the last time such a tragedy befalls any community,” he said.