The hands of debs crash victims Kiea McCann (17) and her best friend Dlava Mohamed (16) were touching as those responding at the scene – including Ms McCann’s father, Franky – tried in vain to revive the victims, Ms McCann’s funeral heard on Thursday afternoon.
“Sitting yesterday with Kiea’s dad Franky, at the McCann home, listening to him describe his frantic actions following his arrival at the scene of the crash, he described conducting CPR on his daughter and her soul friend Dlava, but with no success, the hands of the two girls touching as though they knew they were off to heaven together,” Fr John Chester told the congregation of the Sacred Heart Chapel in Clones, Co Monaghan. “No father should have to witness such a terrible scene.”
A number of gifts, symbolic items in Ms McCann’s life, were offered at the altar by Ms McCann’s family members at the beginning of the service. These included a hair straightener, her iPhone and a photo of her wearing her debs dress, taken one hour before the fatal collision.
Fr Chester, parish priest of Roslea, drew on some of the tributes paid to Ms McCann and Ms Mohamed in the wake of the tragedy in his homily, quoting Fr Peter Corrigan, local councillor Pat Treanor and TD Heather Humphreys.
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He also spoke of how on Wednesday, friends of Ms McCann shared stories of her sense of humour and popularity while she was being waked in her family home.
“She had a great sense of humour, pleasantly mischievous and innocent. She, like her peers, was rarely off the iPhone keeping in touch.
“She kicked football with her close circle of friends, played pool, enjoyed music and the weekend discos. Kiea was kind, wholehearted, genuine. She respected others irrespective of race and creed,” he said.
Ms McCann’s plans to work in childcare and her love for family were also mentioned in the homily.
Fr Chester also reserved some words for Dlava Mohamed, whom he said “always had a warm smile, a gentle hello, when she met you on the school corridor”.
A candle was lit inside the chapel in memory of Ms Mohamed, who was buried in Dublin on Thursday. The Mass leaflet carried a photograph of the two friends, smiling together.
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Ms Mohamed and Ms McCann were both students at Largy College in Clones and died when the car in which they were travelling left the road and crashed into a tree.
Mourners lingered outside the chapel after the Mass, standing by Ms McCann’s coffin. Ms McCann’s family then led the procession to Mount St Oliver’s Cemetery, as Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) played on a speaker.
Before the Mass, Ms McCann’s coffin was met at the entrance to the chapel by staff and pupils of Largy College. Some time before, Ms McCann’s family and friends – wearing blue T-shirts adorned with a photo of Kiea – followed the hearse from the family’s home, a couple of hundred metres from the church.
In a show of respect, a number of motorcyclists parked up and revved their engines as the hearse approached the church gate, creating a plume of smoke. Franky McCann, Kiea’s father, wore a leather biker’s waistcoat at the funeral.
