FUNERALS TAKE PLACE IN SPAIN
Funerals take place in Spain
THOUSANDS of mourners gathered in two cemeteries in Madrid on Tuesday for the funerals of Fernando Blasco (12) and Rocio Abad (23) who died in Omagh. They had been staying in Buncrana as part of a student exchange programme and were part of a group of children from the area who travelled into the town for out when the bomb went off.
Their parents flew to Belfast on Sunday afternoon, having first heard of the catastrophe in Omagh on Sky news. The report said that Spanish children from Buncrana had been caught up in the bomb.
They had visited the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh, as part of a student exchange programme with children from Buncrana, before travelling into the town for a day out.
With the two families was Sinead McLaughlin, Principal of Scoil losagain, Buncrana, one of the main organisers of the Spanish exchange programme to the town for the last ten years.
Fernando was buried in a private chapel in the South West of the capital city as his family drew on their strong faith to attempt to console themselves.
"He was such a good boy that the Virgin Mary wanted to take him with her," his grandmother said. Saturday last was the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, one of Spain's most important religious festivals.
His sister Lucrecia (13) suffered facial injuries in the blast, but was able to fly home on Monday, to attend her brother's funeral. Manuel Blasco, their father, by a cruel twist of fate, was injured by a Basque separatist car bomb on a Madrid supermarket in 1992.
Rocio Abad, who first came to Buncrana as a young teenager to learn English and became one of the groups teachers, was cremated in Madrid's Almudena crematorium. Rocio was killed as she hurried to clear her students from the blast area after a police warning.
Two large floral tributes with Fernando and Rocio's names, rested on either side of the three coffins in St. Mary's Cockhill, at Wednesday's Requiem Mass in Buncrana.
Eight of the twelve Spanish children who were staying in Buncrana, injured in Omagh, were flown home on Monday in a specially adapted hospital plane. Four of the children are still too ill to travel, but their injuries are not life threatening.
Twenty of the students decided to continue their stay in Buncrana, having been given the choice by their parents.
"It is good for them to stay together as a group, to share their feelings at this very difficult time. When they return to Spain they will each go to their own families so this time together as a group will help them," one of the Bereavement Counsellors said this week.
Sinead McLaughlin rushed to Omagh on Saturday as soon as news of bomb reached her. Nothing could have prepared her for the scenes she met.
"I am just devastated. The wait in Omagh was woeful. I have no words to express how sad I am that such evil people exist,it sickens me to think that excuses could be made for what they did. The bombers planned this bomb to have maximum impact and that is what happened. I really thought that no other children would have to be sacrificed in this country. It is so hard to believe.
"I have lost two of my pupils, Shaun travelled with me to meet President McAleese in May. He was always smiling, a sports fanatic. Oran was very popular in his class and he was very much a part of a wide group of friends, cousins and family," she said.
"I would be the coordinator of the Spanish exchange programme. The students are getting great support from the Buncrana community and a psychologist is working with them. There is strength in the group. The people of Buncrana enjoyed having the children so much, it had become an integral part of the summer here," she added.
"The good community spirit of the town has come to the fore with so many people showing how much they care. I don't think we will ever get over this terrible evil visited on our town," a distraught Sinead said on Tuesday.
Malachy and Mary Gallagher live just across the road from the Barker family at Porthaw. Fernando had been staying with the Gallaghers, his sister Lucrecia stayed with the Barkers.
Mary explained how she used to worry about him running up and down her staircase, two and three steps at a time in case he would slip on the wooden floor and she used to warn him "you will be home on crutches,"
"If only he was," she said, as she described the wonderful little boy who brought such joy into her family.
When Mary went to meet Fernando's mother at the mortuary in Omagh on Sunday evening, they just hugged one another and cried, distraught at his death.
THOUSANDS of mourners gathered in two cemeteries in Madrid on Tuesday for the funerals of Fernando Blasco (12) and Rocio Abad (23) who died in Omagh. They had been staying in Buncrana as part of a student exchange programme and were part of a group of children from the area who travelled into the town for out when the bomb went off.
Their parents flew to Belfast on Sunday afternoon, having first heard of the catastrophe in Omagh on Sky news. The report said that Spanish children from Buncrana had been caught up in the bomb.
They had visited the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh, as part of a student exchange programme with children from Buncrana, before travelling into the town for a day out.
With the two families was Sinead McLaughlin, Principal of Scoil losagain, Buncrana, one of the main organisers of the Spanish exchange programme to the town for the last ten years.
Fernando was buried in a private chapel in the South West of the capital city as his family drew on their strong faith to attempt to console themselves.
"He was such a good boy that the Virgin Mary wanted to take him with her," his grandmother said. Saturday last was the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, one of Spain's most important religious festivals.
His sister Lucrecia (13) suffered facial injuries in the blast, but was able to fly home on Monday, to attend her brother's funeral. Manuel Blasco, their father, by a cruel twist of fate, was injured by a Basque separatist car bomb on a Madrid supermarket in 1992.
Rocio Abad, who first came to Buncrana as a young teenager to learn English and became one of the groups teachers, was cremated in Madrid's Almudena crematorium. Rocio was killed as she hurried to clear her students from the blast area after a police warning.
Two large floral tributes with Fernando and Rocio's names, rested on either side of the three coffins in St. Mary's Cockhill, at Wednesday's Requiem Mass in Buncrana.
Eight of the twelve Spanish children who were staying in Buncrana, injured in Omagh, were flown home on Monday in a specially adapted hospital plane. Four of the children are still too ill to travel, but their injuries are not life threatening.
Twenty of the students decided to continue their stay in Buncrana, having been given the choice by their parents.
"It is good for them to stay together as a group, to share their feelings at this very difficult time. When they return to Spain they will each go to their own families so this time together as a group will help them," one of the Bereavement Counsellors said this week.
Sinead McLaughlin rushed to Omagh on Saturday as soon as news of bomb reached her. Nothing could have prepared her for the scenes she met.
"I am just devastated. The wait in Omagh was woeful. I have no words to express how sad I am that such evil people exist,it sickens me to think that excuses could be made for what they did. The bombers planned this bomb to have maximum impact and that is what happened. I really thought that no other children would have to be sacrificed in this country. It is so hard to believe.
"I have lost two of my pupils, Shaun travelled with me to meet President McAleese in May. He was always smiling, a sports fanatic. Oran was very popular in his class and he was very much a part of a wide group of friends, cousins and family," she said.
"I would be the coordinator of the Spanish exchange programme. The students are getting great support from the Buncrana community and a psychologist is working with them. There is strength in the group. The people of Buncrana enjoyed having the children so much, it had become an integral part of the summer here," she added.
"The good community spirit of the town has come to the fore with so many people showing how much they care. I don't think we will ever get over this terrible evil visited on our town," a distraught Sinead said on Tuesday.
Malachy and Mary Gallagher live just across the road from the Barker family at Porthaw. Fernando had been staying with the Gallaghers, his sister Lucrecia stayed with the Barkers.
Mary explained how she used to worry about him running up and down her staircase, two and three steps at a time in case he would slip on the wooden floor and she used to warn him "you will be home on crutches,"
"If only he was," she said, as she described the wonderful little boy who brought such joy into her family.
When Mary went to meet Fernando's mother at the mortuary in Omagh on Sunday evening, they just hugged one another and cried, distraught at his death.
Further Information
Publisher: DERRY PEOPLE DONEGAL NEWS
Ref: DPDN/003
Published Date: 21-Aug-98
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