Heartbreaking - Tragedy at Carrickmines

ANYONE who believes that a family, no matter how it is shaped, is the primary construct of all good societies cannot but have been moved by Saturday morning’s terrible tragedy when 10 people died in a fire at a halting site in Carrickmines in Co Dublin.

That five of the dead were children who had yet to reach 10 years of age, including a six-month-old baby, and that all 10 victims came from just two families, exacerbates the widespread feeling of shock and the incomprehension that greets such loss of young life. These feelings deepened when photographs showing a happy, young and vibrant family reached the public domain.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny captured the public mood when he requested that the flags at Government Buildings be flown at half mast on the days the victims will be buried.

The tragedy reminds us too that certainty is such a fickle thing and that which we so often take for granted — and love — can disappear at a moment’s notice. The nation’s sympathy must go to the bereaved families.