A SHORT service took place in St Michan's Church, Dublin, yesterday when the bodies disturbed in last weekend's vandalism were reinterred.
Archbishop Walton Empey, who presided, later spoke to reporters about the incident: "It is hard to find words to describe this act or to fathom what purpose it served. It was such a terrible act of sacrilege. We have had so many blows recently. There was the murder of Det Jerry McCabe and then Veronica Guerin. There does not seem to be any respect for either life or death in our society anymore. You wonder where society is going.
"I am sad for the people of this small parish and the people who come here and for Canon David Pierpoint, who has to bear this. There are no words to describe all this. It is so sad."
During the service, Canon Pierpoint, parish vicar of St Michan's, said the re-interment had brought together the Christian community, members of the local community, representatives of church and State, parishioners and the general public who wished to show sympathy for the "meaningless rampage" undertaken at the hands yet people yet unknown. "Let us now in a few moments of silence remember before Almighty God those nameless people who have lain at rest for centuries and have now been moved to a new resting place."
The President, Mrs Robinson, was represented by her aide-de-camp, Col Bernard Howard. Also present was the Lord Mayor, Mr Brendan Lynch, the Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, the Very Rev Maurice Stewart, and Rev David Catterall, Warden of the Ministry of Healing.
Mr Lynch said: "This mindless desecration of a historic and sacred place is an affront to human decency and an outrage against the Irish tradition of respect for the dead.
"Who in their right mind would have thought we would come here today in witness of so gross and senseless an act of defilement? We are all diminished by what has happened."