Cork Airport is as familiar to the people of the city as their “front or back gates” so the loss of life there has caused a profound feeling of sadness in Leeside, a service held to honour the six victims of the Manx2 plane crash heard today.
The Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, Paul Colton, led an early morning service at the tiny chapel of Christ the Healer at Cork University Hospital.
Speaking to the congregation in a service transmitted on hospital radio Bishop Colton said the airport was physically and emotionally close to Corkonians.
“Physically, to nearly all of us, from wherever we go in the city it is nearby. In recent days we have all heard stories of people who used it frequently or regularly. Thursday’s crash, therefore, deep down has made us all feel vulnerable. Our own fragility has given us all a profound sense of local solidarity with those who died and with their loved ones now shocking and grieving; with those who were cared for and are being cared for in this hospital.”
Bishop Colton told the congregation that upon hearing of the crash on Thursday his first instinct was to travel to the airport but he was unable to do so because the roads leading to the facility were closed. Feeling helpless he instead started to pray for the victims and their families.
Bishop Colton said his thoughts and prayers were with the dead, their loved ones and those who survived and their families. He also led prayers for the workers at Manx2 airlines and all the communities impacted by this tragedy
not only here but also in Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Great Britain and Spain.
Bishop Colton added at times like this we come to realise that much of our living is in a mist.
“Life’s big questions - the "why's" of life are ones for which we struggle to find answers. In truth, for many of our great questions, we can’t find he right words. But that struggling, tearful place is the very place where
we are promised God is, even though we think we have been abandoned.”
CUH Chaplin, Daniel Nuzum, lit twelve candles representing all of the passengers on last Thursday’s ill-fated Belfast to Cork flight.
Meanwhile, a Catholic mass was held at the Church of the Assumption in Ballyphehane on the southside of Cork city yesterday to remember the victims of the Manx2 crash. The Bishop of Cork and Ross, Dr John Buckley, said it
was difficult to come to terms with a tragedy such as the one that occurred in nearby Cork Airport.
Bishop Buckley said life was often mysterious and that seldom is an easy answer found in relation to sudden deaths in accidents.
“Today we need to ask, Lord, why did you allow our brothers to die so tragically in our city last Thursday morning ? Why did you allow it to happen ? Why have you broken the hearts of their loved ones? Why this great suffering by the injured whom I saw in university hospital ? The bible is full of cries like these. Jesus himself cried out on the cross “My Lord, my God, why have you abandoned me?” All we can say is there are no answers. Suffering and death are mysterious. The Lord’s ways are not our ways,” he said.
Hundreds attended the noon mass including aide de comps for both the Taoiseach and President Mary McAleese, representatives of the emergency personnel at CUH, airport police and staff and members of the gardai. Political representatives included amongst others Cork South Central TDs Ciaran Lynch, Simon Coveney and Deirdre Clune.
Parish priest, Fr Michael Murphy, who performed the last rites on the deceased at the airport last Thursday thanked Cathy Goode, a representative of the Spanish Embassy, from the altar saying that she had been of immense help to the family of the late pilot, Jordi Gola Lopez, over the last few days.
At the end of the mass the congregation broke in to a spontaneous round of applause for members of the emergency personnel as they walked down the aisle of the church.
The funerals of two of the Northern Ireland victims of the crash are due to be held tomorrow.
Pat Cullinan, a partner with international accountancy firm KPMG, is to be buried after Requiem Mass at noon in St Patrick’s church in Crannagh, near Plumbridge in Co Tyrone.
The funeral of Brendan McAleese, general manager of a hygiene services business, is to take place at 1pm at St MacNissus church in Tannaghmore Co Antrim. Mr McAleese was a first cousin of President Mary McAleese’s husband, Martin.