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Brian Lawless/PA Wire
World News

Funeral Mass for Traveller blaze victims in Ireland

by Hannah Tooley

Jimmy Lynch and Willie Lynch and Tara Gilbert, and their children Jodie, nine, and Kelsey, four, died in the Carrickmines fire on 12th October.

Mourners attended their funeral in the Church of the Holy Redeemer in Wicklow.

Ten people were killed in the incident which is not being treated as suspicious.

Brian Lawless/PA Wire

 Speaking earlier in the month the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said that these deaths were heartbreaking for all in the Traveller and wider local community.

It is thought that the family was living at the encampment off Glenamuck Road for around eight years.

Another funeral is due to take place on Friday for the remaining victims, Sylvia Connors, Thomas Connors and their three children, Jim, five, Christy, two, and Mary, their five month old baby. 

Pope Francis added his voice to the prayers and spoken of his "deep sadness" at the deaths of the ten victims.

In a message from the Vatican read out at the funerals, the pontiff described the fire at Carrickmines, south Dublin, as a terrible tragedy.

Hundreds of mourners packed into the Church of the Holy Redeemer to pay their respects to the devastated Lynch and Gilbert families.

Many more gathered outside the church and alongside shops on the town's Main Street which had pulled their shutters down as a mark of respect.

Brian Lawless/PA Wire

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