Carrickmines Fire: Tragedy ‘must become a watershed’

The tragedy at Carrickmines must become a watershed in relations between the Travelling and settled communities, the priest officiating at the funeral of five of the victims said yesterday.

Fr Derek Farrell told mourners at the Connors family funeral that the outpouring of support and sympathy for the victims since the fire must be built upon.

He said it would be a fitting tribute to the survivors — chiefly orphans Michael Connors, seven, and his four-year-old brother, Tom, who was saved by their 15-year-old uncle, John.

Fr Farrell repeated the words of his colleague, Fr Dermot Lane, at the removal the previous evening when Fr Lane also called for a new thinking, criticising successive governments’ neglect of the Travelling community and challenging the “deeply ingrained cultural prejudices” in Irish society.

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful and marvellous, right and fitting, for Michael and Tom and their uncle, John, to know that the deaths of their parents, their brothers and sister, aunts, and cousin, would have made a difference in bringing about that watershed?” Fr Farrell said.