On Wednesday evening, hundreds of people lined the streets of Clones, Co Monaghan in a silent vigil, paying their respects on the return of Dlava Mohamed’s body to her family home following her death in a road traffic collision.
While travelling to a debs ball in nearby Monaghan town on Monday, the car carrying Ms Mohamed left the road and collided with a tree on the N54 at Legnakelly. Ms Mohamed’s best friend, Kiea McCann, was also killed in the crash, while three others – including Ms Mohamed’s sister Auin (18) – sustained injuries.
Ahead of the arrival of Ms Mohamed’s body on Wednesday evening, people gathered at The Diamond in the centre of the Co Monaghan town, where the Mohamed family home is located.
The hearse carrying Ms Mohamed’s white coffin stopped in front of the house shortly after 7pm. A number of mourners wearing black, standing at the entrance to the home, sobbed as her coffin was brought inside. The coffin was taken away by the hearse a short time later.
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“It is a terrible thing to happen,” Esther McLoughlin, a former teacher in Clones, said on Wednesday evening. She was watching on from The Diamond as Ms Mohamed’s coffin arrived in the town.
“We want to send our sympathies to the family,” she added.
Ms Mohamed’s family is expected to travel to Clonskeagh Mosque in Dublin early on Thursday morning, ahead of the victim’s funeral service at 1.30pm. Ms Mohamed will be buried in Newcastle Muslim Cemetery in west Dublin.
Earlier on Wednesday, Rashid Mohammed, the brother of Ms Mohamed, spoke of his family’s confusion and pain in the wake of the tragedy.
“I’m just confused. I don’t know what to do, how to feel. Because this is my first time losing someone this close in my life,” Mr Mohamed (17) said.
Mr Mohamed said he had lost people in his war-torn home country, Syria, but that the loss of his sister was different, more painful. “Everybody is speechless. They don’t know what to do or what to say... It’s hard to say anything, there’s a lot of memories,” he said.
Mr Mohamed was standing by the steps of his family home, where a bouquet of red roses had been tied to a railing.
Throughout the day, people called by the Mohamed home to offer sympathies. Ms Mohamed’s family members took turns to stand by the door to the house and greet those who came to pay their condolences, often accepting flowers or embraces.
A short distance across town, people also gathered at the bereaved McCann family’s home throughout Wednesday. It follows the return of her body to her home on Tuesday night, after hundreds lined the street of Clones to pay their respects.
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Late on Wednesday afternoon, members of the Mohamed family called by the house with flowers.
On Thursday, Ms McCann’s funeral Mass will begin at 2pm at the Sacred Heart Chapel, Clones. After Mass, she will be buried in St Oliver’s Cemetery locally.
