A YOUNG mother of one who lost her life following a suspected arson attack on her home was buried in Cork city over the weekend.
Helena O’Dwyer (25) and her nephew Ryan O’Dwyer Hayes (5) were sleeping in an upstairs room of a house in Nutley Avenue, Mahon, Cork, when the blaze broke out shortly after 3am on Easter Sunday. Six other members of the O’Dwyer family managed to escape from the building. A man in his 20s was subsequently arrested in connection with the incident, and was released without charge. A file on the case will be sent to the DPP.
On Saturday at the Church of the Holy Cross in Mahon, Ms O’Dwyer’s daughter Courtney (5) brought an Easter drawing, a children’s video cassette A Simple Wish, and a montage of family photographs to the altar as part of the offertory gifts.
Chief celebrant at the requiem Mass Fr Kazimierz Nawalaniec said the passing of Ms O’Dwyer had caused darkness to descend on the parish.
She was laid to rest at St Michael’s Cemetery in Blackrock alongside her younger brother, William (14), who died in a car crash in May 2005.
Ms O’Dwyer’s young nephew Ryan was buried in an adjoining plot following his requiem Mass on Friday.
A fundraising account has been set up for the O’Dwyer family at St Michael’s Credit Union in Blackrock, Cork, as they lost all of their possessions in the blaze.