Berkeley tragedy: €200k raised in fund as funerals get under way
The funeral mass for Eoghan Culligan will be held in the Church of the Annunciation in Rathfarnham this morning.
Eimear Walsh’s funeral mass also takes place this morning in the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Foxrock.
The funeral mass for Olivia Burke will be held in the Foxrock parish church tomorrow.
Niccolai Schuster’s funeral mass takes place tomorrow in the Church of the Three Patrons, Rathgar.
On Thursday a funeral service for Lorcán Miller will be conducted in Rathmichael Parish Church in Shankill, Co Dublin.
Six people were killed in the tragedy that occurred during a 21st birthday celebration in Berkeley last Tuesday.
The funeral for Irish-American Ashley Donohoe, a cousin of Olivia Burke, was held in California on Saturday. Olivia’s life was also celebrated during the ceremony. Ashley’s body will remain at a funeral home in Sonoma until her family returns to the United States after attending Olivia’s funeral in Ireland. She will then be cremated.
The seven other students who were injured remain in three hospitals in the San Francisco bay area.
Ashley’s other cousin, Aoife Beary, who was injured in the incident, was living in the apartment with Olivia and Eimear.
Aoife had been celebrating her 21st birthday in the apartment in Library Gardens when the accident occurred.
The families of Eoghan Culligan, Lorcán Miller, Niccolai Schuster and Eimear Walsh have all asked for privacy to mourn the passing of their beloved children.
A separate statement issued by the families of Olivia Burke and Ashley Donohoe said both women had bright futures ahead of them.
“We will fight to make changes so that no family will ever have to go through what we’ve been through, which has changed our lives forever,” they declared.
A number of the students who died were attending University College Dublin and around 17,300 people have signed the university’s online book of condolence.
Copies of the book of condolence that opened at the Mansion House in Dublin last week will be presented to the families by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Christy Burke, in a private meeting.
Books of condolence were also opened in Cork, Belfast and Galway.
An online book of condolence was also opened by Dublin Institute of Technology where Eoghan Culligan was a student.
And a book of condolence at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin will remain open until after the funerals.
Meanwhile, around €200,000 has been raised by the Irish J1 Berkeley Tragedy Fund established by the Irish Immigration Pastoral Centre in San Francisco to assist students affected by the tragedy and their families.
The centre’s gofundme.com page had a target of $50,000 but that figure has been far surpassed. There was a single anonymous donation of €10,000 listed on the website.
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