Two small rural communities in Co Limerick were united in grief yesterday for the funerals of two men who died in an accident at a wake last Sunday evening. Karl Hanlon and Kathryn Hayes report.
Mr Tom Liston (41), a father of three, and Mr Niall Fitzpatrick (36), were electrocuted after a portable floodlight which they were moving came in contact with overhead power cables.
They had been trying to light the way for mourners attending the wake of a local Mr Billy Sheehan (21) who died in a car crash last Friday night.
Mr Liston's 16 year-old son, Robert, and his older brother, Séamus, also suffered burns in the tragic accident.
At Mr Liston's Funeral Mass yesterday in St James' Church, Cappagh, Father Joe Noonan, his first cousin, told mourners that "the only way to get rid of darkness was to introduce light" and he added that was what his cousin was trying to do when he lost his life.
"For many people Tom was a light in their lives and that is probably why people find it hard to understand that he would lose his life trying to bring light to darkness," he said.
The mourners were led by Mr Liston's wife, Kathleen, his son Robert and daughters Bernadette and Katie, while hundreds more huddled outside the church in the rain.
Father Noonan said the President, Mrs McAleese, had personally been in contact with the families of both men to extend her sympathies.
In his homily, Father Noonan spoke of the importance of a sense of community and the support that one can draw from it, which the President had referred to in her recent inauguration speech.
"Thomas Liston had been doing that for years and although he may not have been involved in too many organisations, he was always willing to help. He had a big and generous heart," Father Noonan added.
Mourners also heard that yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the death of Mr Liston's father and that the tragedy was further compounded because he had recently lost his brother-in-law in an accident.
Mr Liston was laid to rest in Cappagh Cemetery.
Meanwhile, 15 miles away the village of Broadford came to a standstill as hundreds of mourners turned out to pay their final respects to Mr Fitzpatrick.
A family friend, Father Peadar De Burca, told mourners that he had known Niall since childhood - and he recalled taking him to Lourdes as a child when he was suffering from illness and on his return from Lourdes he had made a startling recovery to full health.
The mourners were led by Mr Fitzpatrick's parents, Nora and Jack, and his sister Martina who was married just two weeks ago and had been on honeymoon when she learned of his tragic death.
In the homily, Father De Burca told mourners that the "consolation and hope we can offer to his parents is that they would have the memory of Niall in his youth and would remember his kind and generous nature.
"I would hope that with all the friendship and all the kindness that this young man showed that his family would be strengthened and consoled by it," he said.
Father De Burca said that Niall had been planning to marry his girlfriend, Myra, in the near future.
He was buried yesterday afternoon in Killough Cemetery.