Berkeley tragedy: ‘Grief and sympathy and love of all the Irish’

A few moments of their time and a few words from the heart were all anyone who signed books of condolence for the victims of the Berkeley tragedy had to give, but they gave it with the deep wish that it somehow could be more.

President Michael D Higgins was the first person to sign at the Mansion House in Dublin yesterday, emerging solemnly to speak of the dreadful loss of six young people “in the spring of new life”.

His wife Sabina lent her support, signing “with great grief and sympathy and love of all the Irish and people everywhere”.