PUPILS, PARENTS AND the wider community around St. Michael’s College in Ballsbridge held the first of two prayer services today to pay respect to Andrew O’Donnell and Max Wall, two former students who died in Greece over the weekend.
Both young men had recently finished their Leaving Cert exams and had been on a holiday to the island of Ios, where a large amount of south Dublin students had also travelled to.
Andrew O’Donnell, who had recently turned 18, was reported missing on Friday night, and his body was later located in a rocky area outside the island’s main town on Sunday morning.
Max Wall, is understood to have been transported to a hospital by ambulance, where he was pronounced dead later on Sunday.
St. Michael’s principal Tim Kelleher told people gathered for today’s service at noon that he was moved by stories of the students on Ios forming a guard of honour for the hearses removing both teenagers to a ferry for Athens yesterday.
Many of the students who had just graduated 6th year were sitting in the front rows of the service and had recently returned home following the tragedy.
“I heard parents recount the silent dignity of thousands of young people and even port workers who were moved to join in and bow their heads as that boat left,” Kelleher said.
“They must have picked every flower on that island to put on the hearses. When there were no flowers left they ordered them in from Athens and met the delivery when it arrived at one o’clock in the morning.”
He continued:
“People from all over the world of all ages have been moved by the sorrow of the two families that had to sit on that boat and bring their children home. Our hearts go out to them, our condolences and our sympathies are with them, and we will never forget them.”
A second prayer service will be held at 6pm today.
Kelleher paid tribute to the young men who had helped to look for Andrew on the island when he didn’t return home to his accommodation on Friday night.
“I spoke to a man named Gary who has a restaurant on Ios. And he said Max came into his restaurant looking to print some photographs of Andrew,” he said.
“He said ‘In my brief encounter with Max, he was a lovely polite man’. He went on to say, that the men from St. Michael’s College who were on Ios are some of the strongest, most respectful and brave young men I have ever met.”
Kelleher added that he recently spoke with the mother of one of the deceased men, saying to her:
“You probably don’t want to be inundated with hundreds of messages.”
“She said ‘No, when you’re on your own it fills our day to reply’. They told me that they are really concerned for the young men who were on the island.”
“I think it’s a testament to the two boys that died that the two families have more concern for other people and their pain and suffering than they do have their own.”
Fr Paddy Moran also spoke at the service, offering advice to the classmates of Andrew and Max and paying gratitude to the representatives from local schools who attended.
“All the other schools have been so kind the last number of days, they have extended their condolences, and we also express our thanks. Because we know that on the island, our men met great kindness in your students, had great support, and great goodness,” he said.
“Within a week of the Leaving Cert we are back in this chapel and we are devastated. We are broken. We are bereft, bewildered, we are lost. And I have no explanation. I have no answers. But the only thing I have is a refusal to accept that there is no hope.”
“You have to rest. You have to eat. You have to mind yourselves, you have to allow yourselves to be minded by others. Be kind to yourself, be accepting that you’re in a state of shock and numbness. Then at a certain stage, you’ll be able to lead yourself,” he said.
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