The bodies of ten members of the travelling community, including five children, who died in a fire at a halting site in Carrickmines last Saturday were formally identified and released to their families yesterday.
Jimmy Lynch, 39, his brother Willie Lynch, 25, Willie’s partner Tara Gilbert, 27, who was pregnant, and their children Kelsey, 4, and Jodie, 9, will be buried next week. Their funeral will be held at The Holy Redeemer Church in Bray, Co Wicklow, on Tuesday.
The funerals of Thomas Connors, 27, his wife Sylvia, 25, and their children Jim, 5, Christy, 2, and six-month-old Mary, will also take place early next week, in Gorey, Co Wexford. Sylvia Connors was the sister of Willie and Jimmy Lynch.
A temporary halting site for families displaced by the fire has still not been found, in an impasse that has now lasted three days. Dun Laoghaire Rathdown county council had planned to establish emergency accommodation in Rockville Drive, a cul de sac in Carrickmines not far from the site of the fire, which occurred on Glenamuck Road. However locals objected to the plan, saying they had not been consulted, and seeking assurances on how temporary the site would be.
“We are continuing to work actively with the residents with a view to addressing the issues,” a spokesperson for the council said yesterday.
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The local authority had proposed housing 15 people left homeless by the fire in four mobile homes on the Rockville Drive plot for eight months while it prepares a second permanent site nearby. This emergency accommodation would then be “decommissioned” within six months.