Vanessa as we hope James and Dara will always remember her ...
Vanessa
Vanessa is an angel-no disguise,
As lovely in her looks as in her heart.
No one knows why some find joy in giving,
Embracing friends through all the pain of living,
Soothing us through something in their eyes
So genuine it is both truth and art.
All she does is generous and wise.
- Nicholas Gordon
When we were young fellas growing up, if someone died suddenly, there was a saying that went: ‘You never know what’s before you…’ Or as Jesus said in Mathew, Chapter 25 Verse 13; ‘Keep watch, then, because you are not certain of the day or of the hour.’

When James, Dara and Vanessa set out on Thursday morning they did not know what was before them. An incomprehensible tragedy. A wife. A mother. A daughter. A sister. A relative. A friend. A shining rose in a wet Summer … plucked away in full bloom.

As they lay Vanessa’s mortal remains to rest today in the damp, cold soil of her own Kilkenny the rest of us can only faintly imagine the anguish and sorrow of those she leaves behind. That anguish and sorrow may dull with the passage of the years, but it will never entirely pass.

To James and Dara, to them all, we can only feebly offer our sympathy and our prayers that God will grant them the strengths and the insights they need to withstand this terrible event in their lives.