Two teenage girls who were described as "inseparable" in life were buried side by side in a small Co Limerick graveyard yesterday.
The village of Kilteely came to a standstill as more than 1,000 mourners paid their last respects to step-sisters Leanne Miller and Robyn O'Riordan.Both 15-year-old girls lost their lives in a road crash last weekend as they were returning home from a teenage disco.
The Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Dr Dermot Clifford, broke off a holiday to preside over a joint concelebrated Mass in the Church of St Patrick and St Bridget, Kilteely. A loudspeaker system was erected outside the church and an overflow car-park was provided in a nearby field to accommodate hundreds of mourners.
Fr Tom Egan, who celebrated the Mass, said: "They have been described in newspaper reports as step-sisters but in fact they were sisters and there was no step. They were even closer than twins - they were inseparable."
Mourners were led by Leanne's mother, Louise Miller, and her partner, Ben O'Riordan, and Robyn's mother, Martina.
A 20-year-old man who died in a separate road crash in Co Limerick was also buried yesterday. John Roche, Tournafulla, Co Limerick, was the sole occupant of a van which crashed into a wall last Sunday morning.