A community in anguish

BUNCRANA was a town loath to awaken yesterday, its shop shutters drawn and windows darkened as if to acknowledge the new day would be to let in the pain it bore.

But there was no blocking out the glaring horror of the weekend carnage on its doorstep and no hiding from the grief of the loss of the five young lives the tragedy stole.

Cousins Gavin Duffy, 21, and Darren Quinn, 21; Gavin's girlfriend Charlene O'Connor, 21; their pal Rochelle Peoples, 22, and her boyfriend David Steele, 23, were the relatives, friends and neighbours of hundreds and the sorrow at their deaths seeped into almost every household on the Inishowen peninsula.

It seemed every household had sent someone to mourn, to console and to sympathise as the joint funerals of Gavin and Darren took place on a miserable morning, to be followed shortly after by Rochelle and later David.

Crowds lined the sodden streets long before the first hearse appeared, standing silently under umbrellas that neither protected them from the wind-driven rain nor hid the grief in their faces.

As the bereft families of Gavin and Darren followed the two young men's coffins into St Mary's Church, rain trickled along wet strands of hair and dropped to mingle with the tears on their cheeks.

There were words of comfort from the local priests, from President Mary McAleese, who sent a message, and Bishop Seamus Hegarty, who penned a letter but ultimately, said Fr Con McLaughlin, a veteran of many sad mornings, there were no adequate words. "We are coming together in a state of unimaginable grief."

As the cousins' coffins left the church to be carried together across the wet cemetery and lowered into their shared resting place, the pallbearers for Rochelle were waiting patiently outside.

It was then the scale of the tragedy hit many of the mourners who knew not whether to follow the cousins or remain and wait for Rochelle. Many who exited the church through one door returned immediately through another.

Fr Eddie McGuinness received a framed photograph of Rochelle, a bright-eyed doll of a girl, dressed up in an evening gown for a school dance. He pleaded with her friends to reflect on the tragedy and consider what might be done to prevent further loss.

There was little time for reflection for across the peninsula at Quigleys Point, across the same country roads that claimed the five lives, preparations were under way for David's funeral. Rochelle's parents courageously held themselves together to see her boyfriend laid to rest too.

Another hearse, another coffin, another weeping family. Reverend Gilbert Young stood with the crowds outside the small Presbyterian church in the pouring rain to await their arrival and offer another hand of condolence.

Behind them lay the grave of David's mother, who died when her son was still a baby.

Today, the funeral of Charlene O'Connor takes place in Buncrana while across the border, services will be arranged for Brian Power, 21, the sixth young person to die on Donegal roads at the weekend when he was killed in a smash on Sunday morning.

Shutters will remain closed again and more windows will stay darkened, but the community is steeling itself in the knowledge that once more, the pain will find a way in.