No-one can have heard details of the devastating crash which killed two schoolgirls in Co Monaghan without sharing in the enormous sense of shock and grief being felt across Ireland.
Seventeen-year-old Kiea McCann and her best friend Dlava Mohammed, who was 16, died when the car they were travelling in left the N54 outside Clones on Monday evening and crashed into a tree at the side of the road.
They were among four teenagers being driven to a school 'Debs' ball in Monaghan town, including Dlava's 18-year-old sister.
The prayers of everyone will be with her and a 60-year-old man still in hospital with serious injuries.
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It is particularly poignant that Dlava had come to Clones as part of a resettlement programme for Syrians and found a close friend in Kiea.
Largy College principal Sharon Magennis has paid tribute to two "beautiful girls" whose dreams and incredible potential will never be realised, saying they had been integral to the school community.
She described having to bring fellow students away from the formal event to the school after the crash as a scene of "utter heartbreak and devastation".
The double tragedy has left a whole border community stunned. However, the hundreds who lined the streets of Clones as remains were brought home was also a very visible show of solidarity with the students' families.
Those scenes will be replicated tomorrow when their funerals take place in Clones and Dublin and every support should be given to young people left traumatised by the death of their friends.
The accident came as the Republic's Road Safety Authority warned that road deaths in the first half of 2023 were the highest for six years.
North of the border, there were also 40 deaths up to August 1, an alarming increase from the 26 and 23 fatalities recorded during the same period over the previous two years.
A 35-year-old woman was killed at around the same time as the Co Monaghan crash on Monday when her Harley Davidson motorcycle was in a collision with a car near Markethill.
While the circumstances of every crash will differ, each death is a terrible tragedy and all motorists have a responsibility to ensure improvements in road safety statistics over many years are not undone.
The heartbreaking scenes being played out funerals this week should be all the reminders that are needed of the potential dangers on every journey.
