Two young men who died side by side were buried side by side yesterday. Shaun Graham (19) and Matthew Crawford (21) were killed in a car crash in Rathmullan, Co Donegal, in the early hours of Saturday morning. They were buried in adjoining graves in Conwal graveyard on the outskirts of Letterkenny after separate funeral Masses.
Many of the heartbreaking scenes at Mr Graham’s Mass at St Eunan’s Cathedral were repeated three hours later as mourners attended Mr Crawford’s Mass at the Church of the Irish Martyrs across town.
Among the hundreds of mourners at the funerals was Damien Gallagher, a survivor of the fatal crash, who attended in a wheelchair. The other man in the car, Noel Carr, was still in hospital. As the August sunshine glistened outside, Fr Eamonn McLaughlin pleaded with young people at Mr Graham’s funeral to remember how delicate life was. He paid tribute to Mr Graham’s good nature too, saying people simply could not fall out with him.
He said Mr Graham’s friends had told him that “Shaun was a great person, a gem, great craic, always smiling, full of joy and goodness. If you wanted to fall out with him, you just couldn’t do it. He was such a good friend, a genuine spirit.
“There was something special about Shaun and you just couldn’t put your finger on it. Shaun was the sunflower in the life of his family and this community that brightened up the day of others,” he said.
After the Mass dozens of young men poured out of the church wiping away tears as they remembered their friend, who was better known to them as Chip. Three hours later the same touching scenes were repeated as young men and women poured into the Church of the Irish Martyrs.
Speaking at that Mass, Fr Brian Quinn said nobody expected to be standing at a funeral Mass of a young person on a bank holiday Monday. The fact that Mr Crawford had, only two weeks previously, been standing at the same altar for the baptism of his goddaughter Eva was all the more poignant.
The funeral cortege then made the journey across the town which came to a standstill for a second time that day.
For many it was simply too difficult to hold back the tears as Mr Crawford was laid to rest beside Mr Graham.