Hundreds attend funerals of Kildare car crash victims
On Saturday, friends Niamh Doyle and Ashling Middleton, both aged 19, were laid to rest in separate funeral services.
Chermaine Carroll, 20, and 19-year-old Gemma Nolan had already been laid to rest prior to Saturday’s funeral services.
The funeral of Niamh Doyle took place in Askea Church in Carlow, where mourners were told that a darkness had overpowered the parish in the aftermath of the car crash which killed the four friends last Tuesday evening.
Ms Doyle was studying social work at Waterford IT and the congregation heard about her love of music and art. Chief mourners included Niamh’s parents Ber and Veronica, her sister Louise — who quoted lyrics from the Paramore song ‘Misguided Ghost’ in tribute — her brother Kevin, her boyfriend Shane, and extended family.
Later, Ashling Middleton was laid to rest after a funeral service at the Church of the Irish Martyrs, Ballycane, in Naas.
An only child who had lost her father when she was 12, Ashling was a second-year student of English and anthropology at Maynooth University and was described as a creative, free spirit.
Her grandfather, David Thornley, said Ashling had inherited her sense of humour from her parents and that her family would always cherish the memories they had of her.
The four friends had all attended St Leo’s College in Carlow and mourners at Ashling’s funeral heard a poem she had written in the school’s yearbook in 2013: “We are not our past, we are not our future. We are the present. With our dreams we have the ability to transform the world from the mundane to the beautiful, from the grey to the gold.
“If some day we lose these goals for a while, we shouldn’t worry. Like the friends which we have made in the last six years, our dreams will always await our return and welcome us back with open arms and a wise smile willing to chase away the darkness of failure in return for a little time and care.”
The Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Dr Denis Nulty, said the deaths of the women was “a huge tragedy”.
