Crash women’s loved ones in a ‘storm’ of grief
LOVED ones of the three Donegal women who died in a horrific road crash last Friday have been tossed to a ‘storm’ of grief, mourners heard yesterday.
Margaret McGonigle, 69, and her daughter Mairéad Mundy, 39, were laid to rest yesterday morning following their joint funeral Mass at the Church of St Joseph and St Conal in Bruckless, Co. Donegal.
A few hours later the funeral of Mairéad’s close friend, Racheal Cassidy Battles, was held.
All three women were celebrated as kind and caring individuals, and Ms McGonigle was hailed as a lifesaver for her work as a counsellor.
Her daughter Mairéad, meanwhile, was described as a jovial character who would welcome customers at Baskins Café, in Dunkineely, where she worked.
Locals were ‘all the richer for having known’ Racheal, her funeral was told. She indeed was another caring soul, having looked after her wheelchairdependant grandmother in recent years, returning the favour to the woman who raised her.
Perhaps the most poignant moment came when parish priest Fr James Sweeney read a touching letter from a client of counsellor Margaret. It read: ‘Mags, I don’t know where to start, how to express how grateful I am to you. I have battled with my mental health for many years and thought it was something I would just have to live with. That was until I met you. You have changed my life completely, saved me as a person. You are an incredible woman. Absolutely amazing at what you do. It’s a pleasure to have met you and I have enjoyed every second. You have inspired me so much and helped me to smile again. I will be forever grateful... Thank you so much for everything. I will never forget you. All my love forever.’
A qualified addiction counsellor himself, Fr Sweeney said Margaret became an accredited counsellor and was ‘to the fore’ in setting up the Donegal Rape Crisis group. The mother of three became a counsellor under his tutelage 25 years ago.
Grief-stricken residents of the tiny Donegal village of Bruckless came out in their droves to bid farewell to the much-loved local women, who died in a horror crash while returning from a dream holiday in the sun.
The three women lost their lives near Ardee in Co. Louth in the early hours of Friday morning while driving home following a holiday in Turkey to celebrate the first anniversary of Mairéad’s wedding to Pádraic Mundy.
He had been travelling in a second car with Racheal’s husband Martin and Mairéad’s son, Caoimhín when the crash happened. Mairéad had married Pádraic in July of last year having lost her first husband Declan O’Neill who tragically died in 2009.
Caoimhín, who has now lost his father, mother and grandmother, bravely walked behind his mother and grandmother’s coffins yesterday as they were brought to the cemetery beside the church just after midday yesterday.
Hours later, he took part in the guard of honour performed by his local Naomh Ultan GAA club’s guard of honour for his mother’s close friend.
Speaking during the funeral Mass for the mother and daughter who died by each other’s side, Fr Sweeney, told mourners that they were in the middle of a storm right now but that storms eventually end.
He said: ‘When it’s over so, too, will the terribleness through which we presently walk. The pain will linger but its power over us will be softened in time.’
Fr Sweeney recalled how champion Irish dancer Mairéad married Declan O’Neill in 2002 and they had Caoimhín. Some years after Declan’s death she found a ‘good fellow’ in Pádraic, said Fr Sweeney who had helped with the couple’s paperwork for their
‘You saved me as a person’ ‘Very difficult for the human heart’
wedding a year ago.
At Racheal’s funeral Mass, Fr Sweeney, recalled how she cared for her ailing grandmother Ellen Cassidy, who was at the funeral with her mother, Helen.
He described Racheal as a wonderful presence in the community and said her loss, and the loss of her friends Mairéad and Margaret, were ‘overwhelming and very difficult for the human heart and mind’.