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Updated at 6.10pm
POIGNANT SILENCE SPREAD throughout Bray town this morning as five hearses drove down its Main Street carrying the victims of the Carrickmines tragedy.
Emotional scenes followed, when three large silver caskets, followed by two smaller white coffins, were carried by loved ones into the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer.
The majority of shops in the bustling town had their shutters down in the windows as a mark of respect for all those who died in the tragedy.
Ten people – including young children – lost their lives in the halting site tragedy in the early hours of Saturday 10 October.
Laid to rest
Today, Willie Lynch, 25, his partner Tara Gilbert, 27, and their two children Jodie, 9, and Kelsey, 4 were laid to rest with Willie’s brother Jimmy Lynch, 39. Tara was pregnant at the time of her death.
The packed church could not hold the hundreds of mourners that attended to pay their respects.
An overflow hall was used to hold further numbers, with many more standing out on the streets as the funeral was broadcast to a community united in sadness.
A message of sympathy from Pope Francis was read at the funeral Mass.
Bishop Eamonn Walsh said the Pope expressed his deep sadness “over this terrible tragedy”.
“The Holy Father prays especially for those who have died, and he wishes to assure all their family members, their friends, and the whole Traveller community, of his spiritual closeness and sympathy at this very difficult time.”
Lead celebrant Father Derek Farrell said that he awoke like many other people to the news last Saturday week hoping he was just waking from a bad dream.
He said he quickly realised he was waking to an enormous unfolding tragedy “that was all too real.”
Three families, Lynch, Gilbert, and Connors, the entire Traveller community, and Ireland as a nation suffered a loss which is beyond words.
There are no words… No words to take away the pain. No words to restore what has been lost.
Fr Farrell said the only words of comfort or hopeful consolation is that some lasting good will emerge in Irish society so that those who died did not do so in vain.
As a couple, Tara and Willy were themselves very loving and close. John, Willy’s brother put it so simply and beautifully when he said: ‘God made them, God matched them.’ They stuck like glue to one another, and bonded very well. They managed everything so well, the house, the family… they were a really happy, loving family.Tara was a fantastic mum. The children always came first.
Fr Farrell said the mission on our journey through life is love, and Tara and Willy’s unborn child fulfilled that mission, “in the love with which they and the family awaited their child”.
Willy cherished what he called his ‘three girls’: Tara, Kelsey, and Jodie. He brought the girls everywhere with him. Kelsey stuck like a magnet to Willy, always wanted to be close to her Daddy. Jodie meant the world to Willy as well.”
The congregation was told that Willy’s family would always say: ‘He never stops talking!’ He loved fixing bikes, he loved his hunting, he loved nature, he loved life.
Tara was the boss – in the best possible way. When it came to caring for her family and taking care of others, she took charge. Beautiful inside and out, always smiling, easy-going, never grumpy, a fantastic Mum, her children always came first.
Tara adored her father Harry, and was very, very close to Amanda – as twin sisters they loved one another, and though not always with permission, shared everything including clothes, earrings, and hair extensions.
Jimmy, brother of Willy and Sylvia, “had a heart of gold”, the congregation heard. He was “very good with his hands, he liked to fix things, and especially to fix things for other people”. He loved Elvis too.
Fr Farrell said only the families themselves can know the reality of the loss, but that the outpouring of support for the families and goodwill shown has been in a context of often new close relationships between settled and Traveller communities, united in various forms of solidarity and prayer over the past week.
A unity perhaps no more poignantly and particularly embodied than in the loving relationship of Tara as a young settled woman and Willy as a young Traveller man, and the family they together established so beautifully.
Mourners joined in song during beautiful performances of The Prayer, Ava Maria and Alleluia.
Among the mourners were Tánaiste Joan Burton, Minister for Children James Reilly, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and the head of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, Emily Logan.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny was represented by Commandant David Foley and President Michael D Higgins by Lieutenant Coloonel Michael Kiernan. Both shook hands with the families and offered their condolences before the ceremony.
Prayers of the faithful were read by members of the Gilbert family. Mourners were asked to pray for four-year-old Tom Connors who was injured in the fire and who remains in hospital.
Words from the Gilbert family were read by Stuart Gilbert, Tara’s nephew, who said they were all deeply sad about the loss of their loved ones.
He said Tara’s “goodness and love” had remained constant.
What he remembers most about Tara is the times she would babysit him and his sister – times made up of “eating Chinese food and ripping holes in his mother’s clothes”.
“She had gone through a lot in her life, and a lot of hairstyles,” he said, which was followed by a muttering of laughter in the pews, cutting the deeply sad atmosphere that was palpable in the church.
“Jody never missed a day of school,” he said. “She used to walk with such confidence.” Gilbert added that he always loved to see her drop off her bike in their garden before heading off for a day of school.
“Kelsey was just coming into her own, finding her own character,” he said.
Our dead are never dead to us until we forget them.
A poem was then read by the young children of the Lynch family. Each one, taking to the microphone and with help, reading heartfelt words about the family members they have lost.
“Pray for our families, please protect them. Willie with his humour will teach angels how to dance… Jody will always be our ray of light… Kelsey like your mammy… artistic, understanding we adore you little angel, not just beautiful, but outstanding
Jimmy was our treasure, with his heart of gold.
We ask Lord to take them now.”
Before Mass was ended, John Lynch said a few words. With pain and grief in his voice, he thanked the community.
Thank you, from all of my heart, for everything you have done for me.
Tearful scenes followed as the family of five were led down the aisle as Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You was performed.
The remains were taken to Springfield Cemetery in the town.
The other victims of the fire, Thomas and Sylvia Connors and their children, Jim, Christy and Mary, will be buried in Wexford on Friday.
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‘The most common loan amount is now €200 to €500…’
Way to make me feel snowed under in debt!!!
Whose fault is that, think carefully… I’ll give you a hint a mirror would be handy
You’re quaaaaare sound…
Whats a tracker mortgage ?
Mike, it is one of the few things where the customer has the banks by the short ‘n’ curlies and not the other way around for a change.
I know .. I have one ! The latest desrease will pay my prop tax !
And long may it last Brian, but we all know that the busturds will turn the tables in their favour, as they always do.
What nosense! Most common debt between €200-€500! Hardly a debt add a zero or two at least!
it’s wise to keep on top of loans and interest rates.
I was paying €75 a week on a remaining loan of €12000 at 8.45% Just over three years left on it. Savings built up of nearly €3000 that i couldnt touch because the loan amount was higher. So I borrowed €9000 from family member and completely paid off the loan using the savings that had built up
Then I shopped around in different banks/credit union, and got a new loan of €9000 at 7.75% spread over 5 years. Now I’m repaying €42 a week.
I know it’s longer again but like insurance, its no harm to shop around and change loan providers.
You’re better off clearing these debts as soon as possible IMO.
@Fionn – not sure if you realise so apologies if I’m being patronising but the interest you pay back on 12,000 compounded over 3 years at 8.45% apr is 3,448; on 9,000 compounded over 5 years at 7.75% is 4,243 with no savings or interest in savings so you’re actually paying back more to the bank the new way. But it’s a more manageable sum to repay if that’s what you were looking for.
You’re right John. But with the credit union, a person has to lodge money into savings each week along with the repayments on the loan. I should have clarified that. So the savings is building up again a small bit each week. (which is how the savings built up earlier)
Also I showed the amount being repaid each week, as that was the actual figures of the loan term, but I chose to keep repaying the same amount as I was previously as I can afford this.
Others might not be able to do this. Would I be right in doing so? Pay it off in three even though it’s a new five year loan again?
fionn & John
You haven’t mentioned it, but Credit Unions only charge interest on the outstanding balance of the loan, so the interest paid goes down over the repayment period. Paying back quicker automatically reduces the total interest bill.
Whereas banks charge a fixed amount of interest on the whole amount which they will often not rebate for early repayment. (Other credit providers will even charge an extra ‘fee’ for early repayment!)
It is for differences like this that the obligatory stated ‘APR’ rate was designed for, to make cost comparisons easier.
Would that be because many Celtic Tiger cubs who never had to think about interest before 2007 have now had to emigrate and are no longer around to be interviewed while those who had learned all about it 20 years before are still here to answer the questions?
What was the age profile comparison?
Can’t really have any sympathy for such stupidity
“Take action where necessary to protect borrowers interests”
How about getting rid of the ridiculous interest rates that the government allow them to charge? Up to 600% in some cases. It’s no wonder that these parasitic predators make a fortune when the country is on it’s knees and nobody has a penny. This is one industry that seriously needs to be regulated and rigorously controlled.
@niall Could not agree more, those in power have never given a damn. These loan sharks are glorified gangsters that prey on the vulnerable.
The really sad thing is, per an RTE Radio News commentator this morning, that many lower and middle income families are now being forced into the welcoming arms of illegal money lenders in order to get money to pay the unjust, unfair, immoral and anti-family LPT (Family Home Tax).
Why? Fear.
LPT is a fear ridden tax under the threatening administrative control of Revenue. If you cant pay and thus don’t pay you are immediately crimnalised and the state then imposes their accumulating artificial debt on your Family Home ad infinitum.
It is scandalous to think that the very same administration which is artificially lumbering debt onto the backs of middle and lower income Ireland are rolling back on controls in relation to the fat pension tax allowances still being granted to politicians and senior state administrators.
If ever there was inappropriate multiple taxation scheme in need of urgent repeal it’s LPT.
Rome Aug 2103 .. Italian Voters scrapped their hated Local Property Tax (IMU) on Family Homes.
Irish Voters will also take the law into their own hands in the next election and scrap it.
If the banks actually lent money people wouldn’t go near the moneylenders…..
I agree. Most people in difficulty cant get a loan/overdraft from a bank where their wages are lodged monthly/weekly but can access a loan by making one phone call.
It will be worse when the credit unions fall under the umbrella of the banks which apparently it is doing at the moment.
Not on my watch it wont,most people with credit unions wont tolerate any interference or money grab by banks and will withdraw their money.
How many know what Fractional Reserve banking is? 0.01% ?
A valid question
How many know that banks’ ‘Reserves’, fractional or otherwise have no bearing whatever on whether banks lend or not?
They don’t lend either reserves or deposits. In fact loans create deposits, because banks credit customer loan accounts from thin air, creating both the customer liability & their own asset simultaneously.
So, ‘loanable funds’ or banks as mere ‘intermediaries’ is largely bollox. (But a highly convenient deception for the banksters who have ensured that their operations have been excluded from all mainstream economic forecasting models. Doesn’t say much about mainstream economists eh?)
Banks do have ‘Capital’ constraints, but as we’ve seen, ‘creative’ accounting of valuations of often complex financial instruments, counted as Capital, has rendered this constraint fairly meaningless as well.
Deregulation of banks – the high street variety, responsible for the payments system – should never have happened.
95% of what such ‘systemic’ high street banks now do in ‘complex’ products & proprietary trading should be banned.
Former regulator William Black has called current system ‘criminogenic’ and has accused publicly most of the big six US banks (and some others) of ‘control fraud’.
None has sued him for libel – the last place they want to be is answering questions in a court room. (Hence all the out of court ‘settlements’ for Libor rate rigging, class action customer defraud and all the rest.)
It’s not rocket science to regulate high street banks. A public system is a good option too. The neo liberal mantra of ‘competition’ for systemic, payments system banking is pure stupid. We’ve seen the results – fraud & reckless behaviour that blows up taking the real economy with it.
But the banksters have the biggest lobbying operation in the world, owning most of the US Congress & much of Europe’s political & public institutions.
They already succeeded in getting ‘lowest common denominator’ (race to the bottom) forced deregulation into the WTO ‘trade’ regulations around 1999. (Where no financial services had been previously included or thought necessary for ‘trade’ agreements.)
I’ll lay money on the fact that financial services (de-) regulation is the driving force behind the (Wall St. shill) Obama administration’s secretive rush to sign a transatlantic ‘trade’ deal – the so called, barely publicised TTIP.
These binding international ‘trade’ deals are only marginally about trade in real goods, but are all about preventing national governments from protecting their citizens from predatory multinational corporations. And writing legislation to that effect with virtually no public or democratic scrutiny or even publicity.
There is a reason that further WTO ‘agreements’ have completely stalled for over ten years after repeated attempts to finalise & sign the ‘Doha’ agreement.
Some of the global ‘South’ finally couldn’t stomach any more rip offs, voted in some real politicians who’d grown a pair & told the US (& its allies) where to stuff their ‘deals’.
So it’s back to the ‘bilateral’ arrangements where multinational corporations agree in secret with poodle politicians etc. to divvy up & stitch up the rest of us. Minimal pesky ‘democracy’ involved.
The whole system is rotten to the core & filled with comfortably off ‘landlords’ agents’, like mainstream economists & senior public servants (we expect politicians to lie anyway) who could care less about ordinary citizens.
Time for Mr Brand’s (non violent) revolution I think.
Nicely written Mike!
That’s a stupid comment
Rightbackatya, Patrick .
It is time for the banks to pay us back with interest what they were given out of our tax money!
I think the point should be made that there is a difference between Legal and Illegal moneylenders. The legal moneylenders operate within the law, even if the law is somewhat without regulation. The illegal ones don’t. Having said that it is a pity that people are driven to make application for loans from moneylenders, simply because they are refused credit elsewhere. This is a thriving industry, always has been. Maybe more so now.
A Failed Society:
- 360,000 people using moneylenders!
- Government taxes Family Homes for €500 milliion … every year!
————————————–
No EU government or Troika has a mandate to tax Family Homes.
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