The funeral of a teenager who died in the fatal crash which claimed four lives in Clonmel eight days ago heard that her family learned yesterday that she has been accepted into a teacher training course.
Large crowds turned out at the Church of St Peter and Paul in Clonmel for the Funeral Mass of Zoey Coffey, who was from Kilsheelan.
The 18-year-old was one of four people killed on the night of August 25th when the car they were travelling in struck a wall on Mountain Road in Clonmel.
Zoey, along with friends Grace McSweeney and Nicole Murphy, had received Leaving Cert results earlier that day. They were being driven by Grace's brother, Luke McSweeney, to meet other friends in Clonmel with the intention of travelling on to Carlow for a planned celebration event.
The crash caused widespread shock and sadness throughout the south Tipperary community and further afield and was followed earlier this week by another fatal crash in the area, when three members of the O'Reilly family from Cashel were killed in a single-car crash outside Cashel.
Chief celebrant was Fr Michael Toomey, who is chaplain at the CS High School in Clonmel and parish priest of Ardfinnan.
Nicole was buried in Kilcash on Thursday and Grace and Luke were buried yesterday in St Patrick's Cemetery in Clonmel following funeral mass in the town.
Guards of honour were formed outside the church by schoolmates from the Presentation Secondary School and among the symbols brought to the altar to represent Zooey's life were her "class of 2023" jumper, her fake tan, her work uniform from McCauley Pharmacy, a photo of herself and a photo of her dog Kendra.
Many people wore pink to the funeral, in line with the family's wish that the ceremony be a celebration of her life, and to highlight her favourite colour.
Zoey's sister, Clara Coffey, delivered the eulogy at the beginning of Mass and spoke about how proud the family were of Zoey and her achievements.
"Friday the 25th of August, the day I will never forget," she said, referring to the day of the fatal crash.
"A day that started with such excitement and ended with such tragedy and loss."
Clara revealed that the family found out Zoey's CAO offer yesterday and realised she had achieved her ambition of getting enough Leaving Cert points to study teaching in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick.
"A dream she had since she was a child."
The funeral of a teenager who died in the fatal crash which claimed four lives in Clonmel eight days ago heard that her family learned yesterday that she has been accepted into a teacher training course | Read more: https://t.co/OSzDSOx10W pic.twitter.com/lrbDlmPuRO
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 2, 2023
Other celebrants included Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan, parish priest of St Peter and Paul’s Fr John Treacy, and Dean James Mulhall from the Church of Ireland.
In his homily Fr Toomey spoke of the effect the tragedy has had on the area.
He referred to the rose-coloured vestments he wore for the funeral, speaking about how rose and pink are colours which symbolise joy and hope.
"Today we come for many of us for the third day in a row, to a funeral of a fun bubbly and central person in our lives. Zoey went to school in Saint Oliver’s and then to the Presentation Secondary school," he said, before referring to some of the 18-year-old's talents and interests.
"Zoey loved dancing. At the age of three she was a member of 'On Your Toes’ but very much kept her mam on her toes throughout all her life.
"It was at majorettes that she became best friends with Grace McSweeney and the two of them were inseparable ever since."
