TEENAGERS DEATHS PLUNGE AREA INTO DEEP DARKNESS
Teenagers' deaths plunge area into 'deep shadow of darkness'
A CURATE of Termonmaguirc Parish has described Saturday's atrocity as 'pure evil'.
Rev. Sean Hegarty was speaking before the funerals yesterday (Wednesday) of two of his young parishioners, Gareth Conway (18), of 21 Aghogan Park, Carrickmore, and 17-year-old Brenda Logue, from Loughmacrory.
Fr. Hegarty said the whole parish was in a "deep shadow of darkness" following the murders of the young people, and was shocked and hurt by what had happened.
"At the same time, however, hatred does not seem to be to the fore," he said.
"I have been speaking to many people over the past few days, particularly young people, and they keep asking where the peace is going to come from now.
"This tragedy is particularly awful because there was a real opportunity for peace.
Communities were starting to pull together. This wasn't politics - it was pure evil."
He described Gareth and Brenda as good church attenders, who came from good families.
"They were out on Saturday shopping, and doing the things that ordinary young people do," Fr. Hegarty said.
He added: "If we can get through this deluge, please God there will be light somewhere. For those involved in this act, if they can see what they have done, surely they will never do anything like it again."
Gareth Conway, the fifth of seven children, was in Omagh with his mother, Marie, father, Michael, and brother, Ryan, when the bomb exploded.
A keen footballer with Tattyreagh GAA, he had just learned that he had gained a place to study electronic engineering at the University of Ulster at Magee.
He had been in Omagh to buy contact lenses, and was not with the rest of his family when the bomb went off.
His elder brother, Tom, who works in Dublin, said the "whole world" was starting to open for Gareth.
"Just when everything was starting to go well, it was taken away from him. We will never get over this. No one ever will," he said.
His sister, Marita, a nurse, came into the Tyrone County on her day off work to help with the victims, only to discover that Gareth was one of the missing.
Two years ago, Gareth painstakingly constructed a model of his local church, St. Colmcille's. Yesterday, at 2pm, his Requiem Mass was held there. He was later interred at the cemetery at St. Mary's Church, Loughmacrory.
Brenda Logue had been shopping for a pair of jeans in the town with her mother, Mary, and her grandmother, Philomena, on Saturday afternoon.
Yesterday morning, Requiem Mass was held for her in her local church, St. Mary's. She was buried in the adjoining cemetery.
Hundreds
Hundreds packed the small church, and The Auxiliary Archbishop of Armagh, Gerard Clifford, took part in the service.
Fr. Hegarty told mourners that the bombing was the "most grotesque and Satanic act ever to have been carried out" in Ireland.
He said many of those who had died had been in the "springtime of their lives".
It is understood that, minutes before the explosion, Brenda left Kells's shop in Market Street to put bags of shopping in the car. She then returned to the shop to join her mother and grandmother, and, when she reached the front door, the bomb went off.
Her mother suffered a shoulder injury, and her grandmother sustained cuts and bruises.
Brenda's three brothers, Sean, Cahal and Karl, were not in town on Saturday.
A sporty girl, she played in goal for Loughmacrory and Tyrone in the under-16 football season last year.
"She was great, and everybody liked her. She was the one who geared up the whole team," a team-mate said.
She was also tipped to be a future goalkeeper for the Tyrone ladies seniors, and was an enthusiastic handball player.
Brenda spent her summer as a leader for the youth scheme in Loughmacrory, and had just returned from a holiday in Dublin, three days before she died.
Her brother, Sean, described her as an "angel", and said that was how he would always remember her.
The staff and pupils of Dean Brian Maguire High School, Carrickmore, where Brenda was a pupil, are 'deeply distressed' by her death.
Principal, Mr. John Keenan, said Brenda had been at the school for the past six years.
"She was a very popular student, who was full of vitality. She was half-way through an advanced GNVQ course, with her whole life ahead of her," he said.
"Everyone here at the school is shocked and horrified by this senseless slaughter."
Gareth Conway was also a past pupil of the school. Mr. Keenan described him as an "extremely sincere, diligent and industrious" student.
"He was determined to work very hard to achieve success. It is difficult to believe that both of them are gone."
A CURATE of Termonmaguirc Parish has described Saturday's atrocity as 'pure evil'.
Rev. Sean Hegarty was speaking before the funerals yesterday (Wednesday) of two of his young parishioners, Gareth Conway (18), of 21 Aghogan Park, Carrickmore, and 17-year-old Brenda Logue, from Loughmacrory.
Fr. Hegarty said the whole parish was in a "deep shadow of darkness" following the murders of the young people, and was shocked and hurt by what had happened.
"At the same time, however, hatred does not seem to be to the fore," he said.
"I have been speaking to many people over the past few days, particularly young people, and they keep asking where the peace is going to come from now.
"This tragedy is particularly awful because there was a real opportunity for peace.
Communities were starting to pull together. This wasn't politics - it was pure evil."
He described Gareth and Brenda as good church attenders, who came from good families.
"They were out on Saturday shopping, and doing the things that ordinary young people do," Fr. Hegarty said.
He added: "If we can get through this deluge, please God there will be light somewhere. For those involved in this act, if they can see what they have done, surely they will never do anything like it again."
Gareth Conway, the fifth of seven children, was in Omagh with his mother, Marie, father, Michael, and brother, Ryan, when the bomb exploded.
A keen footballer with Tattyreagh GAA, he had just learned that he had gained a place to study electronic engineering at the University of Ulster at Magee.
He had been in Omagh to buy contact lenses, and was not with the rest of his family when the bomb went off.
His elder brother, Tom, who works in Dublin, said the "whole world" was starting to open for Gareth.
"Just when everything was starting to go well, it was taken away from him. We will never get over this. No one ever will," he said.
His sister, Marita, a nurse, came into the Tyrone County on her day off work to help with the victims, only to discover that Gareth was one of the missing.
Two years ago, Gareth painstakingly constructed a model of his local church, St. Colmcille's. Yesterday, at 2pm, his Requiem Mass was held there. He was later interred at the cemetery at St. Mary's Church, Loughmacrory.
Brenda Logue had been shopping for a pair of jeans in the town with her mother, Mary, and her grandmother, Philomena, on Saturday afternoon.
Yesterday morning, Requiem Mass was held for her in her local church, St. Mary's. She was buried in the adjoining cemetery.
Hundreds
Hundreds packed the small church, and The Auxiliary Archbishop of Armagh, Gerard Clifford, took part in the service.
Fr. Hegarty told mourners that the bombing was the "most grotesque and Satanic act ever to have been carried out" in Ireland.
He said many of those who had died had been in the "springtime of their lives".
It is understood that, minutes before the explosion, Brenda left Kells's shop in Market Street to put bags of shopping in the car. She then returned to the shop to join her mother and grandmother, and, when she reached the front door, the bomb went off.
Her mother suffered a shoulder injury, and her grandmother sustained cuts and bruises.
Brenda's three brothers, Sean, Cahal and Karl, were not in town on Saturday.
A sporty girl, she played in goal for Loughmacrory and Tyrone in the under-16 football season last year.
"She was great, and everybody liked her. She was the one who geared up the whole team," a team-mate said.
She was also tipped to be a future goalkeeper for the Tyrone ladies seniors, and was an enthusiastic handball player.
Brenda spent her summer as a leader for the youth scheme in Loughmacrory, and had just returned from a holiday in Dublin, three days before she died.
Her brother, Sean, described her as an "angel", and said that was how he would always remember her.
The staff and pupils of Dean Brian Maguire High School, Carrickmore, where Brenda was a pupil, are 'deeply distressed' by her death.
Principal, Mr. John Keenan, said Brenda had been at the school for the past six years.
"She was a very popular student, who was full of vitality. She was half-way through an advanced GNVQ course, with her whole life ahead of her," he said.
"Everyone here at the school is shocked and horrified by this senseless slaughter."
Gareth Conway was also a past pupil of the school. Mr. Keenan described him as an "extremely sincere, diligent and industrious" student.
"He was determined to work very hard to achieve success. It is difficult to believe that both of them are gone."
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/0094
Published Date: 20-Aug-98
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