A PRIEST laid the blame for last week's road tragedy, in which four young university friends lost their lives, at the door of the National Roads Authority (NRA).An tAthair Micheal O Braonain, parish priest of Leitir Moir in Connemara, was speaking yesterday at the funeral of Theresa Molloy (19).
Theresa and her three friends were killed instantly in a collision on a bend in the road between Milltown and Ballindine on the Galway-Mayo border last Tuesday night. Another friend, Michelle O'Donnell, remains in a critical condition in hospital.
They were returning from a shopping trip to Sligo when their car smashed headlong into a pick-up truck at Carrownurlaur in north Galway.
An tAthair O Braonain told the congregation at the Church of Bantiarna Lourdes agus Naomh Colmcille in Leitir Moir all four families should have been looking forward to the girls' graduation. Instead, they had been left with the unimaginable grief of trying to organise their funerals.
Sadness
He said: "We have been consumed with sadness over the last few days, but we should also be very, very angry with our leaders and the National Roads Authority.
"I have no doubt in my mind that if the 8km stretch of road between Ballindine and Tuam was of a standard in keeping with the rest of the roadway from Charlestown to Galway, we would not be grieving the loss of four very special young women.
"I read one newspaper heading last week 'NRA urged to improve deadly bend where four students lost their lives' but the National Roads Authority should not need urging.
"The National Roads Authority should do their duty. We ask authority figures to belatedly respect the memory of the four girls by doing their duty, not in 10 years' time or 20 -- they should start now."
The chief mourners were Theresa's parents Pat and Cathy, and sisters Jamie, Susan and Christina. Burial afterwards was in the local cemetery.
Meanwhile, in Achill, Co Mayo yesterday, a grieving father told mourners he had suspected his only daughter was a victim of the tragedy even before a garda confirmed the worst during a midnight visit to the family home.
After hearing on the radio that four young people had died on the N17 near Milltown, Thomas McLoughlin had been fruitlessly ringing his 19-year-old daughter Sorcha Rose, "the apple of his eye".
When the texts went unanswered, the father-of-three from Mulgannon, Co Wexford, had a sense of dread and foreboding.
"I knew it was her," Mr McLoughlin told mourners at the funeral Mass in his native Achill before Sorcha Rose's remains were brought to nearby Glencoe Cemetery for burial.
Flanked by his two sons, Cian and Martin, Mr McLoughlin, speaking in both English and Irish, delivered a lengthy tribute to his daughter in Derreens Church, Achill.
Prominent among the mourners yesterday was Sorcha's boyfriend, Lieutenant Owen Nolan, of the 28th Infantry Battalion, Donegal.
On Saturday, the heavens opened in south Connemara as the first of the victims of last Tuesday's road tragedy in north Galway was laid to rest. Hundreds of mourners packed Cill Treasa Church in Rossaveal, while many more stood in the rain outside to pay their last respects to Marie Ni Chonghaile (19) from nearby Baile na hAbhann. Chief mourners were her parents Noel and Noirin and her brothers Padraig and Ciaran.
Fr Sean McHugh said, as Gaeilge: "Our hearts go out to Noirin and Noel and to Padraig and Ciaran. They have been asked to carry a heavy cross."
Among the mourners were NUI Galway president James J Browne and many classmates of the four young undergraduates.
Burial took place afterwards in Moyrus cemetery.
All activity in the north Galway village of Headford came to a virtual standstill at lunchtime on Saturday as hundreds turned out for the funeral Mass of Sarah Byrne (20), "the girl with the trademark dimples".
St Mary's Church overflowed with neighbours, friends and others who came to offer their support to her grieving family.
Celebrant Fr James O'Grady told mourners there had been shock and a great deal of pain in the time since the tragedy, especially for Sarah's parents, Tom and Tina, and for her brother Stephen.
Among the gifts taken to the altar were photographs, Sarah's mobile phone, her make-up and hair straighteners and a college textbook. Among those in attendance were friends and students from NUI Galway and from her former school, Presentation College in Headford.
A guard of honour was formed by students from Headford outside and burial afterwards was at Cloughanover cemetery.
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