After all is said and done, after every last eulogy is recited, after every representative pays his respects, after every bit of shock etched on our furrowed brows falls away, then and only then, will two little children begin living a life with a large void in it.
Tomorrow morning as the fuss begins to dissipate, as the number in their house begins to gradually thin out, their search among the strange faces for the most familiar face of them all will go on for the heartbroken little children of Adrian Donohoe. Children of that age should not have to go through the agony of suddenly losing a parent, the loss of the man who dropped them off many mornings to school. A ‘dada’ who was a role model for their classmates and friends. But even the thought of returning to the school will not bring them any solace from the strange happenings of the past week because it lies right across the road from where this horrible incident took place last Friday night. As they begin to understand what happened, they are confronted by its awfulness.
And so every aspect of their proximity is hurt by this event. Every member of their family is numbed into disbelief. Each of their little classmates will feel too that something about the joy of their school has been robbed by the violence that visited their village. Right from that moment when terror visited Lordship, their lives were consigned to being those of victims. For them too, the thing that will most define their lives has happened, at an age when things that define your life should not happen. Everyone is entitled to a childhood to prepare us for the challenges ahead. We all try to smooth the path so that our children will be better able to walk the rocky highways.
When those thugs rolled into Lordship on Friday, they stole, not just money and the life of a good man. They took too the innocence of his children and the happiness of his friends and family.
And these are all the things we ask our gardai and emergency services personnel to put on the line when they make those brave steps for us. When we are asleep at night and they are left to clean up the social chaos of violence and crime and drunkenness and recklessness. Because their job requires them to put themselves in the way of danger, their families deserve credit for years spent half expecting terrible news.
As the years go by, the Donohoe children will learn more about their father’s character, of his role in the community, of his loyalty, of his eagerness to confront the men who challenged them in that credit union car park. There will develop a pride within them for the achievements of their father and of the kind and heartfelt worlds that are being uttered about him now and into the future. They will share this pride and grief with their mother, Caroline.
But together they would give it all up for the chance to live their lives in his presence, for him to be there to see them develop, to see how they have coped in a life without him. A life changed forever in a moment.
