UP TO 2,000 people attended the funeral Mass yesterday of Frank Fahy (20), who was killed last week in the Co Galway town of Glenamaddy. Mr Fahy, who lived at O'Keeffe Park in the town, died in the early hours of last Monday morning from a stab wound.
Parish priest Fr Paddy Mooney told mourners yesterday that "a terrible darkness" had visited the town.
St Patrick's Church was full at least an hour before Mass started at 1.30pm. Loudspeakers were erected outside the church for hundreds of mourners who could not get inside, while the Mass was also broadcast to the adjacent Glenamaddy Community School where many more neighbours and friends sheltered from the wind and rain.
Despite the conditions, the young men of the community continued a local tradition of forming a guard of honour, wearing just white shirts and black trousers.
Fr Mooney said the community was struggling to come to terms with the events of the past week and that the grief and shock was all the more difficult because it was Christmas.
"We were here in this church last Sunday night at a carol session. Little did any of us think at that time, as we rejoiced in the singing of the children, of the terrible darkness that would descend on us within hours," he said.
Fr Mooney said the community had the utmost sympathy for what Frank's parents, John Joe and Mary, his brother Noel and his sisters Emer and Gráinne, were going through. "The events of the past seven days has made everyone evaluate their lives."
Patrick Doherty (45), Clooncon West, Glenamaddy, has been charged with Mr Fahy's murder. At a court hearing on Friday, he was remanded in custody to appear again on January 2nd.