Families united in grief as crash victim friends buried
Two heartbroken families and one extended community were united in grief on Friday as the funerals of two teenage friends killed in a car crash took place in Co Donegal.
Alana Harkin and Thomas Gallagher, both aged 18, were returning from working at Simpson’s Bar and Restaurant in Carndonagh in the early hours of Monday when the car in which they were travelling left the road and ploughed into a wooded area at Terrawee, Gleneely, at around 12.30am.
Both Alana and Thomas were killed while another friend was rushed to hospital and treated for non life-threatening injuries.
The first of the funerals on Friday was that of Alana at St Mary’s Church in Bocan, Culdaff. Hundreds of mourners lined the road outside the church for up to an hour before the funeral. The hearse was covered in floral tributes including one which simply read ‘daughter’ and her coffin arrived into the church to the sound of ‘Amazing Grace’.
In his homily, Fr James McGonagle said Alana, in her short 18 years on earth, certainly made her mark.
“If we could see Alana’s life not as a life interrupted but rather as a life completed it might help us to gain strength for the future, because we all do have a future, there is still a life to be lived,” he told the congregation.
The best word to describe Alana, Fr McGonagle said, was ‘magnetism’.
“Everyone was drawn towards her, young and old,” he said. She has been blessed with so many loving and faithful friends, in the community, at school and her workplace at Simpsons.
“She was a live wire, a pocket dynamo, a ball of fire, a prankster.
“She was also a beautiful singer, and had the role of Gretl in the school production of . She was a good actor, you didn’t know if she was acting the clown or being serious.”
Fr McGonagle said that Alana touched his life too from almost the day she was born.
“From the day I blessed her in Altnagelvin, as she fought for her new life, having been premature at six months, then I baptised her, I heard her first Confession, I gave her first Holy Communion and then she was one of our altar servers in this church. After I retired I hadn’t seen her for a few years until one day I was at a funeral dinner in Simpsons and this lassie landed in my arms, as lively as ever.”
Fr McGonagle said that the death of a loved one, especially the accidental death of an 18 year girl, is very hard to take. “Especially when that young person had a world at her feet with all kinds of dreams and hope for the future.”
“We can only guess the turmoil going on in the minds of Karen, Patrick, Collum, Shauna, and Shay, her close family and friends and classmates.
“Our very presence here today and the numbers that turned up for her homecoming and at the wake is an assurance to you that you are not on your own.”
Speaking to her parents and siblings, he said: “We are all with you, not just today, but also in the days ahead. There will be dark days. The most important source of comfort for us is our faith.”
The congregation also prayed for Alana and Thomas’ friend Patrick, who survived the collision and is believed to be making good progress in his recovery.
Fr McGongle, on behalf of the bereaved families, issued a word of thanks to all who came on the scene of the tragic crash on Monday morning, especially the gardaí, the fire brigade and the undertakers who did professional work, under very trying circumstances, with great sensitivity and respect.
Alana's sister Shauna, in her prayer of the faithful, said that the family will miss Alana beyond words.
“My daughter Anna also loved her so much but I will make sure her memory is kept alive in my little family forever.”
After her funeral Mass, Alana was laid to rest in the adjoining cemetery.
Many mourners then made their way 18km across the peninsula to St Mary’s Church in Ballybrack, Moville, to pay their final respects to Thomas Gallagher.
His remains were brought to the church in a horse-drawn carriage. Inside, the mourners were led by Thomas’ mother Helen, his dad Dominick, brothers Roán, Dominick, Emmet and his sister Emily.
Fr Eddie Gallagher told mourners that Helen and Dominick wanted Thomas’ funeral to be a celebration of his life.
He said “Our gathering in tragic circumstances reminds us of the preciousness of human life and how things can change so drastically for us in the blink of an eye.
“In the first hour of Monday, life changed and will never be the same for Thomas and Alana’s families.”
He said everyone at his funeral Mass wanted to remember Thomas at his best.
Fr Gallagher added “He packed a lot into 18 years of life. He was looking after everyone else from the moment he was born. He was protective of you all. When he was told he was having a baby sister, he literally jumped for joy. He was so happy that his family felt so complete and he happily walked Emily around the estate in a pram.
“Thomas understood how important it is to live each day as a new gift from God."
Among the gifts and symbols of Thomas' life were a hand-carved wooden heart with pictures of Thomas and Aoife, his girlfriend of 18 months.
Fr Gallagher recalled the young couple's love of each other and of music and how they attended so many concerts.
Turning his attention to Thomas' friends or the 'boyos', Fr Gallagher said the friends were like a 'Band of Brothers.'
He said Thomas always kept an eye out for the lads, especially when some of them perhaps had "one too many."
As well as his football and hurling, his love of horses brought out the best in him and all the young people he helped at Cooley Equestrian Centre in Moville.
Family and friends were everything to Thomas but as the oldest child, his young life was made complete at 10 years old when his only sister Emily was born.
Fr Gallagher said Thomas literally jumped for joy when Emily was born and had no problem pushing her around in her pram.
A poem chosen by Thomas' heartbroken father Dominick and read by a friend had mourners in tears while a closing song from Thomas' classmates at Moville Community College was met with a spontaneous 'round of applause.
Outside the funeral Mass, hundreds of mourners waited in the cold chill of the November air as Thomas was led to the adjoining cemetery for burial.