Love of life, friends and family went to the hearts of Donegal road accident victims, Alana Harkin and Thomas Gallagher, mourners at their separate funerals have been told.
Alana (18) and Thomas, also 18, died when the car they were travelling in was involved in a single-vehicle accident near their homes at Gleneely, Inishowen shortly after midnight on Sunday. A third teenager, Patrick McKinney suffered non-life threatening injuries in the accident.
Huge crowds packed St Mary’s church, Bocan, Culdaff and St Mary’s, Ballybrack, Moville for the teenagers’ Requiem Masses with many mourners more gathering in the church grounds on Friday.
Requiem Mass for Alana was led by Fr James McGonagle and concelebrated by Fr Kevin Doherty, Fr Eddie Kilpatrick and Fr Karl Hann. Fr McGonagle, Fr Doherty, Fr Hann and Fr John Forbes later joined chief celebrant, Fr Eddie Gallagher for Thomas’s funeral Mass.
A friend of Alana, Fr McGonagble told mourners that, “on a personal level” she touched his own life.
“I blessed her in Altnagelvin as she fought for her new life, being premature at six months. Then I baptised her, heard her first confession – not much there, she was still very young – gave her her First Holy Communion. Then for the year or two before I retired she was one of our altar servers here in this church,” he said.
In an utterly heart-breaking tribute, Alana’s father, Patrick read a story his daughter wrote about premature birth when she was just 12 years old. With his voice breaking and Alana’s mum, Karen by his side, Mr Harkin said his daughter outlined her own birth at six months.
She said: “I was the size of daddy’s hand.”
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Fr McGonagle quoted Scottish poet, Robbie Burns, telling mourners that to see Alana was to love her. He said the one word which summed up the Donegal teenager was magnetism as “everyone was drawn towards her, attracted to her, young and old”.
Fr McGonagle said: “She was a livewire, a pocket dynamo, a ball of fire, a prankster.”
At school, the teenager was a noted singer and actor, taking part in school shows and, later, she worked at Simpson’s Restaurant in Carndonagh.
Thomas’s love of horse-riding was symbolised in a riding cap brought to the altar at St Mary’s, Ballybrack. School friends from Moville community college formed a guard of honour as he was brought to the church in a horse-drawn hearse. Many wore yellow ribbons after his mum, Helen said her son was “the light of any room”.
Fr Gallagher told mourners that love, family and friendship were key to celebrating Thomas’s life. He said Thomas was generous with his time, “gentle and softly spoken”. The Donegal-based priest said the teenager was a “leader among men”, hugely protective of his brothers, sister and friends.
“Despite their pain and loss, they (Thomas’s parents) say to us all today they have no regrets. Thomas made them so proud; he was everything you would have wanted him to be. He was almost too good for this world. They are so grateful for having had him,” Fr Gallagher said.
Following the Requiem Masses, Alana and Thomas were laid to rest at Bocan graveyard and Ballybrack graveyard respectively.
