A 15-year-old girl will always be remembered due to her “bubbly personality” and“smiles” mourners at her Requiem Mass heard.
Molly Dempsey from Whitehall Park, Baltinglass was pronounced dead at the scene of a fatal single vehicle collision at 5am on Sunday last at Slaney Park close to the town.
Students and friends from her secondary school, Scoil Chonclais provided a guard of honour with many wearing her favourite colour pink and white T-shirts emblazoned with her image and name in pink.
A sunshine-filled morning belied the shattering sadness of the Dempsey family’s enormous loss.
Perched on a height above the town of Baltinglass, mourners began to gather from 10.30am at St Joseph’s Church for the teenager’s Requiem Mass.
A car and tractor led the cortège into the grounds of the church with the words Molly 15 across both.
Her pink coloured coffin, with her name ‘Moll’ was carried into the church by pall-bearers also wearing themed T-shirts. A white and pink lilies and roses floral wreath and a smiling photograph of the young girl adorned her coffin once in the church.
The Dempsey family already suffered two previous bereavements, when two of her brothers died in separate incidents. A 13-year-old brother Roy passed away tragically, while another 18-year-old brother Kilian died in Dublin.
She is the third of nine Dempsey children to have lost their lives.
Parish Priest Gerard Ahern who concelebrated the Mass explained the meaning behind three symbols which were brought to the altar representing her life, a photograph of her with her family and her love for them, her favourite book, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horses, she liked to read for herself and to her nieces and nephews.
Finally a speaker was presented showing a love and passion for her favourite music and loud music as many of her neighbours would know.
Fr Ahern said: “Molly has died with a life ahead of her and we’ll never know now what that life would have been like. Sadly that will not happen now but her bubbly personality, her singing voice, her love of animals, her sense of fun would have seen her grow into a wonderful person.
"Molly was baptised in this church and on the 21 August 2021, I confirmed her here and one the one thing I remember she had taken the name of a male saint as her confirmation name that was more the exception than the norm.
"The name was Kilian and she told me the reason for taking that name, it was the name of her brother who died and I certainly thought it was most appropriate. His death had a profound effect on her and it was a beautiful tribute to a brother she loved deeply. When something like this happens we ask God why this happens and it's not easy holding onto faith."
He continued: "We are all very conscious but particularly for you Nigel and Mary that this is the third time you’ve been asked to carry such a heavy cross. We think of Roy and Killian, maybe it does offer some little support or comfort to you to know that once again that Molly, Roy and Kilian are together and that they will take care of her. But we gather here in the church because we are people of faith.
"A faith which is very much tested and leaves us asking many questions but if we thought this was the end of life for Molly I think it would be hard to take that on to realise for people of faith and to appreciate the fact that new life is open to her that will never end."
Mourners listened as Fr Ahern explained that while they were gathered in the church on a very sad occasion they were also there to celebrate and give thanks to God for the life of Molly.
"A life of only 15 years and really we shouldn’t be here this morning and we can all sense that. We sense the sadness, we sense the despair, the sense of feeling of loss at this untimely death of Molly. We are very conscious of each other, her family, her parents Nigel and Mary and her siblings Laura, Charlie, Joe, Yvonne, Jake and Ella, grandmothers May and Dolly and extended family," he noted.
"We are here to offer you the support of our presence and the support of our prayers because often at a time like this there is nothing else we can say or do. Just to realise that everyone shares your pain and wants to be their support you whatever way they can and although Molly’s life was a life of 15 years there was a lot that she achieved in that life and there are a lot of memories that she has left and those are memories that you will hold on to for a long time."
He revealed that it felt for him and Miss Dempsey's family that it seemed "somewhat unreal" to be there because of Molly's death.
"But that is the reality and there’s no way of getting away from it. We all know that our lives will end with death but we hope and expect that it will come after a long life. But we all know from life from experience and the Dempsey family knows it doesn’t work out that way and death can come at any age.
"Inevitably when it comes like this it's like as if the electricity is cut off everything stops. Television goes blank, the radio goes silent and the lights go out and we are plunged into darkness. We are in a blackout," explained Fr Ahern.
"When that happens we feel lost, helpless and maybe frightened and our whole routine is disrupted and we want to know why this happened. I often think that a sudden death and an unexpected death is like a blackout. Without the slightest warning we have no chance to prepare ourselves. We are plunged into darkness and, in the space of a minute your whole life is turned upside down.
"And as you went to bed on Saturday night little did anyone think what they would wake up to on Sunday morning. The first thing I thought of upon hearing of her death was of her parents Nigel and Mary and I didn’t know then that you had already lost two children Roy and Kilian.
"I said to myself no parent should have to go through this. In fact, no parent expects to see a child of theirs to go before them but three is very hard to comprehend and only you Mary and Nigel know what that is like, the rest of us can only imagine it and for her siblings, Laura, Charlie, Joe, Jake and Ella you have lost your baby sister and only you know the pain of this loss."
Her close friend McKenzie told those gathered of Molly's love of horses, donkeys and dogs, her joy of dancing and loud music as mourner's tears flowed openly.
Three relatives gave reflections of how much Molly meant to them all. The young girl's remains were interred in Baltinglass cemetery following her funeral Mass.
The driver of a car, a teenage boy was not injured, was arrested on suspicion of offences under the Road Traffic Act, was detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 but later released.
Gardaí said investigations were ongoing and a file was being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
