Funeral Mass held for couple found dead in their Co Clare home

A daughter of Joe and Claire Collins, who were found dead at their home in Co Clare last week, has told their funeral Mass that she would give anything to have another happy day with her parents.

A poem, which she had written “to close that lovely and beautiful chapter” of her life with her parents, was read by Sara Collins to the mourners who packed St Brigid’s Church in Corofin on Monday.

“Mum and Dad we love you, we want you both to know - It was always so easy to be just us four - But it is so, so hard to let you go,” she said.

The couple’s bodies were discovered at their home at Crossard, Kilnaboy last week. Gardaí are treating the deaths as a suspected murder suicide, with Joe Collins (54) believed to have killed Clare Collins (51) before taking his own life.

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Gardaí are not looking for anyone else in relation to the couple’s deaths. A Garda file will be prepared for Clare County Coroner Isobel O’Dea for an inquest to be held at a later date.

Ms Collins said her mother had “showed us how to be gentle, loving and kind” and that her father “showed us how proud you were of us”.

“If we could bring you back we would hug you both forever - Even though we can’t we will love you more than ever...What we wouldn’t give to have one more of those happy, happy days with you,” she added.

Ms Collins said that she and her sister Tara “got a lot of advice from Mum and Dad over the years about different things - they were so good”.

In her poem, Ms Collins said: “We miss you both today. We miss you both tomorrow. Nothing can be done to end our pain and sorrow. We love you both to the moon and back…”

Joe Collins’s brother, Brian, said the couple’s daughters are “such a credit to them” and that they were “bursting” with pride and joy when their first grandchild, Rian, was born. He thanked parish priest Fr Des Hillery “for his support, his words of prayer and words of calm over these very few difficult days”.

Mr Collins also thanked the gardaí for their professionalism and the sensitivity shown to the family, neighbours, friends and the wider community of Kilnaboy-Corofin.

Fr Hillery told mourners that “our lives and our routine has been plunged into turbulence and swirling directionless” since news of the couple’s deaths emerged.

“Change has happened. It is not the same and it will never be the same,” he said.

After the requiem Mass, the couple’s bodies were brought to Shannon, Co Clare, for a cremation service.

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