When mourners went to St Patrick's Church in Kilkenny city yesterday morning, they were only certain of one death - that of Mrs Maeve Byrne.
When they left the church, they were also mourning the deaths of her two young sons. Father Martin Delaney had told the congregation that their bodies had been positively identified.
St Patrick's Church was packed to capacity for the Requiem Mass for Mrs Byrne, who was murdered earlier this week at her home in Cuffesgrange, five miles outside Kilkenny.
Since then, her husband Stephen and sons Alan (10) and Shane (6) had not been seen.
After a slight delay in beginning the ceremony, Cuffesgrange curate Father Delaney told the congregation of the identification of the bodies of Alan and Shane. Up to then, there had been muffled crying but people openly wept at this latest news.
Father Delaney prayed for the boys, for their father and for the people who were still searching for Mr Byrne along the Wexford coast.
The ceremony for Mrs Byrne was led by Father Delaney, and concelebrated by Father Dan Carroll, parish priest at St Patrick's, Father Sean O'Connor, also from St Patrick's parish and Father Frank Purcell, the curate who married Maeve and Stephen Byrne.
In his homily, Father Delaney recalled the couple's wedding day, which took place on Maeve's birthday in June 1988. He asked the mourners to remember that, when Maeve and Stephen walked down the aisle of Foulkstown Church, they were as full of love for each other as any couple. "That love gave birth to two beautiful sons, Alan and Shane," he said.
The curate remembered Mrs Byrne as "a young woman full of life who was generous to a fault and spontaneous in her friendships and in everything she did". He said she often slipped into the friary for "a quiet conversation with her God".
Father Delaney said he was aware that words were "woefully inadequate" in stopping the grief or healing the pain that was so keenly felt in the church. "And yet we have to talk," he said. "We all want to know why this had to happen. Was there something we could have done? Why, why, why?"
Attempting to answer his question, he said such suffering would intimately link people with the suffering of Jesus Christ before his death. He said that was the ray of hope which people must try to grasp from such a tragic situation.
"Our hearts are broken with you today," Father Delaney said when he directly addressed both Maeve's and Stephen's families. "We are here, not because we can have answers to your questions but because we want to support you, we want to walk this journey with you."
Mrs Byrne's mother May led the mourners, followed by Mrs Byrne's only sister Ann and her stepfather, Mr Malachy Skelly. Her late father, Mr Billy Quinlan, was a prominent bookmaker in Kilkenny.
Referring to the fact that Maeve and Ann were adopted, Father Delaney said Maeve once told Ann that they were "sisters by chance and friends by choice".
He also prayed for Mr Byrne's father, Mick, his late mother and their extended families.
Reflecting on the deaths of the two boys, the curate appealed to the congregation to "pray, pray like we've never prayed before" for both families.
Mrs Byrne's burial took place at Foulkstown Cemetery on the outskirts of Kilkenny city.
