Local priest Fr Peter Corrigan put it very well when he said: “There’s a time where words mean very very little, probably your presence is more important than what you say.”

That presence has been very evident in recent days. Hundreds of people lined the streets of Clones in Co Monaghan to form a guard of honour when the funeral cortege of Kiea McCann, 17, made its way through the town on Tuesday night. They stood on both sides of the road in a line that stretched for over 1 kilometre. Last night, the community was there for the family of Dlava Mohamed, 16, as her remains were brought to the family home. Both girls died in a single-vehicle accident on the N54, near Clones, on Monday night. Three others were injured.

The coming-together of so many people in recent days shows that the devastation wrought by such tragedies ripples out into the wider community, leaving a lasting mark.

The sadness and emptiness left in its wake will be felt keenly at Largy College where both girls were students. Principal Sharon Magennis spoke of the “empty chairs” that will face them come September and the impact on parents, school and community. The stark image of those empty chairs underlines the reality that grief does not fade when the cameras and the headlines shift their focus. That these young girls lost their lives as they prepared to celebrate one milestone in life — the debs ball — somehow heightens the awful fact that they will not to be there to mark so many others.

The only way through that, as the College principal said, is to stand shoulder to shoulder in the difficult weeks, months and years ahead. After the accident, the school’s first thought was to bring the students back to the school so that they would be in a familiar place with familiar faces. They will get much-needed ongoing support.

There is comfort — if even just a shred — in uniting in the face of tragedy. While grief is very personal and experienced most acutely by family and friends, it is also felt at community level.

Expressing it together, as the people of Monaghan are doing now, establishes a kind of invisible thread that draws people together and gives them strength.

The Irish traditions of the wake and keening are perhaps most closely associated with loss, but another old tradition comes to mind now; that of Meitheal, when neighbours came together to deal with whatever task faced the community.

If it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to mourn one or, in this heartrending case, two. Our thoughts are with the families and people of Clones.

Time to legislate

Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin yesterday published legislation to criminalise landlords who seek sex for rent. It is the second attempt by opposition parties to ban a practice that was revealed in an award-winning investigation by Ann Murphy in this newspaper. She unearthed evidence that tenants were being offered properties at reduced rents, or free, in exchange for sexual favours.

It is important to keep a sense of outrage that such legislation is even necessary, just as it is important to highlight the Government’s shameful lack of action in drafting it.

When the scandal came to light 18 months ago, Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan brought forward the Ban on Sex for Rent Bill 2022. Despite all-party support, it was halted at committee level. Last week, Ó Broin put forward the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (Sex for Rent) Bill 2023. He said seeking sex for rent is “a disgusting predatory form of behaviour. It should be outlawed”.

Mixed messages from the government are not helping the situation. The Taoiseach said yesterday that sex for rent is already an offence under prostitution laws but last week, the Government said it is waiting for a review of Part 4 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) 2017 before drafting legislation. Justice Minister Helen McEntee admitted there is no timeframe. The behaviour of some property owners is, of course, a symptom of our ongoing housing crisis. The Government is not only failing to deal with that, but, in failing to resolve this issue, it is also facilitating a particularly repugnant form of exploitation.

Booker boost

Four of the 13 authors longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize are Irish. It’s a much-needed good news story and one that also sets a record: Ireland has now produced most nominees, relative to population size, in the prestigious prize’s history.

The Irish nominees are Sebastian Barry for Old God’s Time; Elaine Feeney for How to Build a Boat; Paul Lynch for Prophet Song, and Paul Murray with The Bee Sting.

They made the longlist from a selection of 160 books. The shortlist, to be announced on September 21, reduces that number to six and the winner of the £50,000 prize will be revealed in London on November 26.

The nominations say something about the country that produced them. One of the Booker’s five judges, James Shapiro, attributed Ireland’s success to our strong English departments at third-level, the artist income-tax exemption scheme, independent book presses, literary festivals, and bookstores. He said Ireland had invested in literary culture and that is bearing fruit. A very welcome turn up for the books.