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Final preparations for Berkeley victims' funerals

Funerals will take place in the coming days
Funerals will take place in the coming days

Final preparations are under way for the funerals of five victims from last week's balcony collapse in Berkeley, California.

Five Irish students and one Irish-American died in the tragedy.

The bodies of Eoghan Culligan, Lorcán Miller, Niccolai Schuster and Eimear Walsh were flown home to Dublin yesterday.

This morning, the body of Olivia Burke arrived home on a flight from San Francisco this morning.

A service was held in California over the weekend for Ms Burke and her cousin Ashley Donohoe, who also died in the accident.

Ms Burke's funeral mass will take place at the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Foxrock on Wednesday morning, followed by burial at Deansgrange Cemetery. 

The body of Ms Donohoe will remain at a funeral home in Sonoma until her family returns from Ireland from Ms Burke's service. She will then be cremated.

The funeral mass for Mr Culligan will take place in the Church of the Annunciation in Rathfarnham in Dublin at 11am tomorrow.

Ms Walsh's funeral mass will also take place at 11am, in the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Foxrock in Dublin.

At 11am on Wednesday a funeral mass for Mr Schuster will take place in the Church of the Three Patrons in Rathgar in Dublin.

Mr Miller will be laid to rest on Thursday, following a funeral service at Rathmichael Parish Church in Shankill.

The families have asked for privacy so that they can mourn the sudden and tragic deaths of their loved ones with the dignity they deserved.

In Belfast, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Theresa Villiers was among those who signed a book of condolence, which opened this morning at City Hall.