Hundreds attend Crosstown burial
THERE was a strong garda presence at Crosstown on Friday afternoon as a huge funeral rolled into town. From early afternoon, reports began to circulate of large groups of people gathering at the side of the road near the turn off for Crosstown and cars were parked along both sides of the main road to Castlebridge, as well as right up the road to the graveyard.
Hundreds of people were in attendance at the burial and gardaí did their best to control the crowd and to ensure people’s safety. While there are legal implications to breaking Covid-19 restrictions, such was the size of the crowd that confronted the gardaí that all the could do was attempt to keep people moving, distanced and safe.
Wexford County Council were also monitoring the situation and it is believed that their surveillance drones may have been deployed to ensure health and safety. The huge influx of people was a cause for concern for locals living in the area, not least of all as a result of the traffic chaos that was caused on the road.
‘In normal times, this type of thing comes with the territory,’ said Fine Gael councillor and Crosstown Resident John Hegarty. ‘You’d be used to seeing large funerals come and go. It’s just the fact that the whole country is meant to be adhering to social distancing and following the guidelines and they clearly weren’t being followed on this occasion.’
Cllr Hegarty said that the crowds descended on the area from early on, parking both on the main road, between the VTN Test Centre and Ely House, and on the narrow road up to the graveyard. He also noted the large presence of uniformed gardaí.
‘You’d feel for the gardaí,’ Cllr Hegarty said. ‘I had liaised with them early on and they were doing everything they could to work with the crowd and keep everyone safe. There aren’t enough gardaí in Wexford to police a crowd that size coming at you.’
‘While it is a sensitive and difficult time for the family that has lost a loved one, unfortunately we’re in unprecedented times and we all need to adhere to the rules. From what I’m hearing the adherence to the guidelines is slipping across the county and maybe people need a friendly reminder that we’re not out of this just yet.’
A garda spokesman said that they had done their best to engage with family members, funeral directors and other involved parties in advance of the funeral at St Aidan’s Cathedral in Enniscorthy and the subsequent burial in Crosstown.
‘We had engaged with the family in advance,’ a garda spokesman said.
‘Subsequently a big crowd came and we did our best to ensure that social distancing etc was being observed. With it being a funeral, it’s a very sensitive issue, but we would ask, going forward, that families continue to abide by the guidelines being laid down by the government.’