“Devastation was unimaginable,” hears the funeral

The funeral of Tadg O’Sullivan, 59, and his son Diarmuid, 23, were told “the shock, the deafness, the devastation” of their deaths and Tadg’s eldest son Mark, 26, was “impossible to imagine”.

About 100 mourners attended the services for Tadg and Diarmuid on Friday, and only about 25 close relatives and friends entered church due to Covid-19 regulations to sympathize and support the grieving widow and mother Anne O’Sullivan.

Tadg and Diarmuid died Monday in a suicide pact in which they took their own lives after previously shooting Mark over suspicion of an argument over the legacy of Anne’s farm.

Outside the church, another 30 lined the path to the limestone church from the 19th century on the outskirts of the village of Castlemagner. Many were young people, friends, and contemporaries of Diarmuid who were still silenced by the scale of the family tragedy.

Others waited in their cars parked in the parking lot across the street and only got out of their vehicles to line the lane to show their respect when the two coffins shouldered by the church and placed in two hearses were to make the short drive to St. Brigid’s Cemetery in the other side of the village.

The tragedy earlier this week plunged a community into darkness and made people understand everything, grievers heard.

Canon Toby Bluitt told the mourners who attended the service at St Mary’s Church in Castlemagner that it was difficult to put into words the feeling of sadness and incomprehension that their death had caused in their community.

In his homily, Canon Bluitt said that the reading from the Gospel of Saint Luke on the Passion of Christ spoke of a darkness coming upon the world, and that the same darkness not only fell on the O’Sullivan family but also the local church in Castlemagner had captured.

“The normally quiet area is covered with countless colorful autumn leaves at this time of year. . . became a beehive of activity and the fall light was on. . . for a time. . . a very distant memory, ”said Canon Bluitt.

“The shock, the deafness, the devastation were unimaginable and the news of the loss of three lives was incomprehensible. . . Like all of you, I struggle to understand this life-changing tragedy. “

Father John Magner came to Canon Bluitt, who performed the last rites on the three deceased on her family farm in Raheen between Kanturk and Castlemagner and who also served Anne, as she was comforted by neighbors.

“Overwhelming” grief

Canon Bluitt described the grief that enveloped Castlemagner as “overwhelming”. He greeted the mourners and said that they had all teamed up with local Bishop William Crean of Cloyne to express their deepest condolences to Ms. O’Sullivan.

He recalled that Mr. O’Sullivan had worked in the automobile trade in nearby Buttevant for over 40 years and, from his own encounters with him, found him “very accommodating, friendly and happy in his chosen field”.

He said Diarmuid went to school in nearby Ballyhass and later Kanturk and, like Mark, socialized in Castlemagner before studying accounting at the Cork Institute of Technology, where he graduated in June and was due to be awarded online next week.

“One could imagine that life was full of possibilities for him – one could also say that both Tadg and Diarmuid touched the lives of many people on their way through life. Your life and death have all changed and you will never be the same again. “

“So today . . . Gathered in our grief, we do not minimize the loss of their lives by trying to give simple answers because there are no answers. . . But there are some things we know in the midst of our grief.

“We know that was not God’s will. . . that the Our Father teaches us: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – God’s will is not always done on earth, as the tragedy of this week reminds us. We know this wasn’t a wake-up call. . . Nor did it happen so that we could learn anything. “

Lined streets

Prayers were said for Tadg and Diarmuid as well as for all emergency services and everyone who helped in any way during this tragic event, as well as for the people of Castlemagner, that they remain a caring and Christian community.

Thereafter, the residents of Castlemagner lined the streets of the small village of North Cork when the remains of Tadg and Diarmuid were carried by two hearses to St. Brigid’s Cemetery for burial.

Mark O’Sullivan, a law student who graduated from the University of Limerick and later graduated from University College Cork, is buried with funeral at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday after a funeral service at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Kanturk place in an unknown location.