More than 1,000 mourners packed the Cathedral of the Assumption in Thurles, Co Tipperary, yesterday for the funeral of Mr Bill Doherty, a retired garda, and his wife, Teresa, whose bodies were found at their home in Monadreen on Monday night.
Mourners heard Father Eugene Everard speak of a darkness that had enveloped Monadreen and Thurles on Monday night. There were, he said, moments in a nation's history when a single event could unite everyone in sorrow, mourning and grief.
One such moment had been the Omagh bombing, he said, and now a local community, a country town and friendly neighbourhood had again been numbed into shock and grief at the terrible tragedy of the deaths of two people who had been dearly loved.
Father Everard said, however, that the pain of the assembly and community was nothing compared to that of the families of Bill and Teresa Doherty, whose grief was enormous. A heavy cross and unbearable load had been placed upon their shoulders and it was unfair, unwarranted and unjust.
Father Everard said he did not know why the double tragedy had occurred. It was a mystery that was beyond all their understanding, but he knew that this tragic loss had not been the will of God. That was not his way.
He spoke of the contribution both had given to their families and community and said they had done so in a very quiet way. Bill had given of himself as a member of the Garda Siochana for many years, and Teresa had cared for her family, especially her mother, and had been a "mother" in recent years to the boarders of the Ursuline Convent. "They always gave of themselves." One of the readings at the funeral Mass, which was attended by the Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Dr Dermot Clifford, and more than a dozen other clergy, was recited by the Dohertys' son Colin, and prayers were also recited for the couple's eldest son, Martin.
Former colleagues of Mr Doherty, who had served in the town since the early 1960s before retiring, attended the ceremony, and members of the Garda formed a guard of honour beside his hearse. Students from the Ursuline Convent, where Mrs Doherty had been a study supervisor, flanked her hearse. Family and friends wept as the cortege, led by Mr and Mrs Doherty's sons, Colin and Keith, and members of their families, made the mile-long journey to St Patrick's Cemetery, Thurles, where the couple were buried.