“A tragedy has occurred here in the parish,” said Fr Ray Flaherty as he opened afternoon Mass at Saint Mary’s Church in Claran, Co Galway a little later than usual on Tuesday.
“We have lost two young people in our community and we remember them here today.”
Fr Flaherty, parish priest at Headford, was speaking about the crash at Pollacullaire on the L6127 in which Lukas Joyce (14) and Kirsty Bohan (14) were killed in the early hours of Easter Monday. Two others who were in the car, aged 13 and 14, remain in hospital.
Fr Flaherty said “the whole thing has just come as a shock to everyone”.
“There is a numbness in the community. You hear about these things happening in places and then it comes to your own door and you realise this is here in our own community, and we have to deal with it,” he added.
The priest was due to visit the parents of Lukas and Kirsty on Tuesday evening. He has been in touch with Presentation College Headford, where both were second-year students, about holding a Mass next week, after the Easter holidays, to remember the teenagers.
“You can’t help but feel emotional, here they were with their lives ahead of them, they weren’t that long out of national school and now gone,” he said.
“I was talking to one of the granny’s of one of the children in hospital and she said they are doing ok and hopefully will be fine…no head injuries or anything like that as far as I know, they seem to have been very lucky.”
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An older woman who was among the congregation said of the news: “Nobody can believe it, it is absolutely devastating”.
She added: “I prayed for them all this morning here, but especially for the two families. I don’t know them, but know of them, and would have seen them around. It is a terrible thing to happen to a family.”
Across the town, parents and children streamed in and out of Presentation College during the morning and afternoon, hugging one another and their teachers on a day when the rain kept coming.
Inside the school, a shrine has been erected with pictures of Lukas and Kirsty surrounded by candles and flowers. Psychological support services are being offered to students.
“We pray for all the families and friends of those involved that they may be granted some peace and succour at this tragic time,” the school said in a statement. “We also pray for our own school community, that we may find the strength to support each other and carry on.”
A letter from school management to parents has advised them to monitor their children’s social media activity over the coming days, and to reinforce “the need to be extremely sensitive and careful about what they post”.
Cllr Mary Hoade, the chairwoman of the school’s board of management, said there is a sense of “shock and disbelief at what has happened”.
“No words can explain the feeling in the community and the school right now,” she said. “We’re offering prayers and sympathies to the Joyce and Bohan families and we are praying for the others that they will be ok.”
At the scene of the crash, more than a dozen bouquets of mostly pink and yellow flowers have been placed. A woman parked across the road from where the accident happened and, with her two children, placed another bunch on the grass.
“I know one of the families and everyone is absolutely devastated for them,” she said. “It is every parent’s worst nightmare…unimaginable. Everyone’s hearts are broken.”
Cllr Andrew Reddington described the crash as “the worst thing that has ever happened to the community”.
“There have been many tragic car accidents and incidents in the area over the years but there has never been anybody as young,” he said. “Both the Joyce and Bohan families are well-known and well-respected. I have been talking to people all day yesterday and today and there is just an unbelievable amount of grief and heartache among the community.
“They were so young, had just started off in secondary school…I know the whole community are thinking and praying for the parents and families and will be behind them.”
