'I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you actually leave them'

Leaving Certificate students Zoey Coffey and Grace McSweeney pictured on the night of t heir debs ball

placeholder image — Leaving Certificate students Zoey Coffey and Grace McSweeney pictured on the night of t heir debs ball

Clonmel car tragedy

At a graduation mass in May, held at the Presentation Secondary School in Clonmel for the Leaving Certificate class of 2023, Zoey Coffey was one of the proudest pupils in the room.

Zoey, who lost her life in Clonmel’s worst tragedy in living memory on Friday night, had been the inspiration behind selecting the theme for the important occasion.

Three Leaving Certificate classes were vying for the honour of choosing the theme for the graduation Mass.

Zoey’s class were given the nod for their proposal and she was thrilled to have played a key role in the process.

The theme, “I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you actually leave them,” takes on a poignancy of an altogether greater magnitude in light of the tragic events of Friday night.

The secondary school lives of Zoey, her Presentation colleague Grace and Loreto student Nicole, had just reached a conclusion on Friday when they received their Leaving Certificate results.

They were due to celebrate their achievements that night and were looking forward to entering an exciting new chapter in their lives when tragedy struck.

The hugs of joy from earlier in the day seen at the Presentation and the Loreto, as girls met to congratulate one another on their exam results, came to an abrupt end.

Their classmates were now overcome with grief, hugging to console one another as they tried to comprehend the loss of their beloved friends.

The stark reality of how instantly their world changed is powerfully illustrated when standing in front of the Loreto Secondary School, where another victim of the crash, Nicole Murphy, was a pupil.

Your eye is immediately taken by the line of flowers standing against the Loreto wall, a short distance away from the crash site on the Mountain Road.

Glancing to the left there is a reminder of just how joyous and wonderful their school lives were.

A banner at the school entrance speaks of the love, laughter and learning that captures the essence of school life.

They were the “good old days” for Loreto student Nicole and Presentation students Grace and Zoey, before they were so cruelly taken.

The funeral of Grace McSweeney, and her brother Luke who also died in the accident, will take place this morning , Friday September 1, in Clonmel. The funeral of Zoey Coffey will take place in Clonmel on Saturday September 2.