West Clare community stunned at three tragedies

ALTHOUGH he has served for more than four and a half decades as a priest, Lissycasey parish priest Fr Joe Hourigan has never witnessed anything like the devastation to hit his community this week. The trio of tragic deaths in the parish have stunned not just Lissycasey but the entire county.
“It’s unbelievable and incomprehensible. I’m here 10 years now but I’ve never seen anything in any parish like this and I’m a priest nearly 46 years,” Fr Hourigan commented.
Pat Kelly, Tommy Meere and Brian Casey sustained fatal injuries within hours of each other on St Stephen’s Day.
“I’ve never experienced a situation where, within 12 hours, three people died in very tragic situations, bringing such grief to a small community,” he added.
The only positive to emerge from a week that has shocked Lissycasey has been the community reaction.
“People were shocked and horrified at the beginning but then gradually they began to come together in the face of the unbelievable, to do extraordinary things to help one another,” Fr Hourigan said.
He referred to the meitheal President McAleese talked about in her recent visit to Ennis, when she spoke about the community response to the flooding crisis.
“All she said became a reality for us as regards the power of the local community,” the Lissycasey parish priest added.
“Of course, you’d also have to say that in the case of Brian Casey, that the good side of it is that his parents donated his organs to help other people, that they might have life. Maybe a few people will benefit from that. They are such a good, charitable and generous family. His father Marty led the first group of people out to Sister Ethel’s project in South Africa two years ago,” Fr Hourigan noted.