Hope and healing were to the fore of the Vigil at St Clare’s Church for the three sisters and younger family member left seriously injured following last Sunday’s M9 crash.
It too place just hours after the funerals of three of the five teenagers who’d died in that incident, their car travelling the wrong way on the motorway before it struck the other close to Moone in County Kildare.
Many gathered in Graiguecullen last night (Friday) for the hour-long service led by Parish Priest Fr John Dunphy, Bishop Denis Nulty and Reverand Paul Fitzpatrick of the Carlow Killeshin Group of Parishes .
People came in such numbers that the pews were filled, with more outside, while hundreds of others watched online.
Bishop Denis Nulty said we also remember the five boys who had been travelling in the other car as that’s the Christian thing to do. And he reminded that while words can hurt, they also have the power to heal calling on all to be careful of social media postings and of commentaries.
Fr John Dunphy passed on the sisters’ families thanks to all for the support and he recognised Brian Curley’s GoFundMe as the only official fundraiser, by last night it’d raised close to three quarters of a million euro which drew an applause and later hugs from those present.
The Poor Clare Sisters led a decade of the Rosary before all were told “Even in the darkest moments hope still shines and sometimes hope is enough to help us believe the storm will pass and brighter days will come again”.
