Funeral services are to be held for two teenage best friends who were killed after the car they were travelling in crashed while on the way to a Debs ball in Co Monaghan.
A funeral mass for Kiea McCann, 17, will be held at the Sacred Heart Chapel in Clones at 2pm on Thursday, and will be laid to rest in Mount St Oliver’s Cemetery.
A funeral service will be held for Dlava Mohamed, 16, at the Clonskeagh Mosque and Culture Centre in Dublin at 1.30pm on Thursday, and she will be laid to rest in Newcastle Muslim Cemetery.
A coach carrying family and friends of Dlava is to leave Clones’ town square The Diamond at 6.45am on Thursday and drive on to Dublin.
The principal of the two teenagers’ secondary school said the two girls had been “best friends” since Dlava’s family arrived in Clones as part of a resettlement programme for Syrians.
Largy College principal Sharon Magennis described Dlava, who had just completed her Junior Cert exam, as “always very happy” and “bubbly”, and Kiea as “pleasant and courteous” and who had hoped to go on to study childcare.
The school community has been overcome with grief and the Clones community is said to be in shock after the tragedy.
In a showing of respect and support, hundreds of locals formed a guard of honour in Clones as the two teenagers’ remains were brought back to their family homes.
People wept and comforted each other as the hearse carrying Kiea’s remains arrived in the town on Tuesday night, pausing for a moment outside Dlava’s home.
Women stood in the doorway of Dlava’s family home and sang a lament as her remains were brought into the house on Wednesday evening.
The victims’ families are said to be “hugely devastated” and suffering from shock and trauma after attending the scene in the aftermath of the crash.
Three other occupants of the car were also injured after the vehicle veered off the N54 and into a tree, just outside Clones, on Monday at 6.45pm.
An 18-year-old woman is in a critical but stable condition at Cavan General Hospital, while a 60-year-old man remains in a critical condition at Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital.
An 18-year-old man also suffered non life-threatening injuries.
