An anniversary Mass will be held tonight for the families of the five schoolgirls killed in a bus crash in Co Meath last year.
The five teenagers died and 46 other students were injured when the Bus Éireann school bus skidded and toppled over at Kentstown, Co Meath, a year ago today.
The bus, which was not fitted with seatbelts, was carrying students from a number of secondary schools in Navan.
The Mass will be celebrated by Bishop of Meath Dr Michael Smith at the Church of the Assumption, Beauparc, Co Meath, this evening.
Following the service, Dr Smith will bless a memorial garden beside the church in remembrance of Aimee McCabe (15), Claire McCluskey (18), Deirdre Scanlon (17), Lisa Callan (15) and Sinead Ledwidge (15).
Dr Smith said last night the families had received tremendous support from friends, neighbours, the clergy and the local schools. "They really came up trumps at the time and continue to do so. They're a very rooted community," he said.
St Michael's Loreto College, which lost four of its pupils in the crash, held a private memorial service in St Mary's Church in Navan last night.
Students in St Michael's have sold 7,000 keyrings with the message "life is a gift" inscribed on them in memory of their friends. They have raised €14,000 for the Children's unit of the Louth/Meath Hospital Group.
Bus Éireann said yesterday that all school buses would be fitted with seatbelts by September, three months ahead of the schedule given by Minister for Education Mary Hanafin last July.
The fitting of seatbelts to the 650 buses in the school bus fleet began last February and, according to a Bus Éireann spokeswoman, was now one-third complete.