Counsellors comfort pupils after friend's bomb death

Counsellors and teachers gathered at Mercy Secondary school in Waterford today to help pupils come to terms with the death of 17-year-old Tara Whelan, killed in a bomb attack while holidaying in Turkey.

Tara Whelan, 17, from Kilmeaden, died when the no warning terror blast ripped apart a minibus she was travelling on in the popular resort of Kusadasi on the last day of her holiday.

As officials from the Irish Embassy in Ankara made arrangements for the teenager’s body to be returned home staff at the school prepared to console hundreds of pupils.

Declan Clancy, vice principal of the Mercy Convent where Tara sat her Leaving Certificate exams before heading off on the sun holiday, said two counsellors and teaching staff would be on hand to help pupils.

The school opened from 8am today with some of the 700 pupils expected to arrive nearer to lunchtime.

The last time all the sixth year pupils from the school were together was graduation night at the end of term.

“It’s from one extraordinary extreme to the other,” Mr Clancy said.

And the vice-principal once gain paid tribute to the bubbly 17-year-old.

“A beautiful young girl, sedate, private, confident, friendly and popular. They’re no cliches. They are all heartfelt, meaningful words about a young life that was precious, a young life that has left us but really has enriched us,” he said.

The teacher spoke of the sense of shock felt in the school and the small, close knit community of Kilmeaden.

“You are not prepared for it, and you can’t imagine it. Yet you deal with it when it happens but it’s the worst thing in the world that can happen and you don’t even want to visualise it,” Mr Clancy said.

The schoolgirl sat her Leaving Certificate exams last month before travelling on the package holiday to the resort on the Aegean Sea. It is understood she had planned to study hotel management at a nearby technical college in September.

Tara went to the popular Turkish town with two friends, twin sisters Tracy and Lindsay Galgey, who also attended the convent school. They arrived home yesterday evening and are being comforted by friends and family.

It is understood holidaymakers near the resort of Kusadasi were warned to avoid the most popular tourist spots only hours before the blast ripped the minibus apart. Police believe explosives were planted on the vehicle.

A total of five people died and 11 were injured when explosives detonated as the bus was driven from the town centre to a beach.

Officials from the Irish embassy in Turkey have travelled to the holiday resort to organise the repatriation of Tara’s body.