As a community, we come together not just physically, but in our minds, to mark the occasions that bring extreme of emotions to us all. When our sports teams win, we line the streets, we roar at our televisions, we don the colours to send a powerful energy to those who wear those colours in the heat of sporting battle. When our athletes make us proud at Olympic Games, we honour them and the families and mentors who have brought them to this stage.
And when we mourn, we mourn with the support of those around us who provide a cocoon for us from the reality of the moment and the impending sadness that follows.
I think the support network of grief is always the most poignant when it involves a death of someone who is far away from their original home. In recent decades, the advent of easier travel means that our people are far flung around the globe, we are to be found in the jungles of central America, we are traversing the globe discovering ourselves.
And here in Ireland, we are the venue for so many more who have come here to find a life that they all hope will be peaceful and more conducive to lifelong contentment.
To lose someone overseas always seems more tragic given that all of us travel because we seek adventure, new opportunities, to meet new interesting people and cultures and to enhance our lives and those of our families.
That is why, last Thursday evening a tragedy took place in Galway that has saddened us all, impacting several families, each in thier own tragic way, bringing an end to hopes and dreams.
The story that emerged over the past few days of the passing of Karzan Sabah, his wife Shahen Qasm and their eight-month-old daughter Lina; and that of Jonasz Lach has shocked the nation.
All of them were people who came to our country in search of fulfilling lives. They would have been filled with hope that they could create a living for themselves that would make them valuable members of our community. Alas, it was not to be and their passing is mourned by their friends and families and wider communities.
To all the people impacted by this, I extend my most sincere condolences. I hope that all who have suffered pain and heartache as a result of this awful event can feel the embrace of support; that they know that the arms of Galway are wrapped around them as they come to terms with what has happened.
Without the search for reasoning, it is incumbent on all of us to look out for one another, to offer a smile, a warm comment; to make sure that nobody feels isolated or fearful as the world moves back to a sort of normality.
We hope that we can all learn from the tragedy and do our best to ensure that nothing as awful as this befalls any more families. Even aside from this tragedy, there is a lot of hurt at the moment being suppressed in our villages, our towns, our cities. People we all know are just about coping; each day is a struggle. Help ease their pain, eliminate their invisibility, make them feel a greater sense of worth.
Remember our deaths are not our lives, and they should not define us. Or others. This evening, spare a short moment to think of all those who had died before their time in our place this year. And then think of any small thing you can do to save the living.
