Guard of honour for best friends killed in crash

Kiea McCann (l) and Dlava Mohamed (r), who died after a crash in Monaghan, were best friends

Hundreds of people have lined the streets of Clones in County Monaghan to form a guard of honour for a teenage girl who died in a car crash.

Dlava Mohamed, 16, was killed alongside 17-year-old Kiea McCann on Monday evening after their car hit a tree on the N54 road in Legnakelly, near the Irish border.

They were travelling to a school ball organised by Largy College in Clones.

Mourners gathered in the town's centre on Wednesday evening as Dlava's white coffin was returned to her family.

On Thursday morning, Dlava's body will travel from the Diamond in Clones to Clonskeagh Mosque and Islamic Culture Centre in Dublin, where her funeral will take place.

She will then be laid to rest in Newcastle Muslim Cemetery in Dublin.

A hearse carried Dlava's white coffin to her home in Clones town centre

On Tuesday night, there was a guard of honour as Kiea's remains arrived home in the town of Clones.

Her funeral is due to take place on Thursday afternoon at Sacred Heart Chapel in Clones.

She is to be laid to rest at Mount St Oliver's Cemetery, also in the town.

Hundreds of people lined the streets of Clones on Wednesday evening

'Two beautiful girls'

Earlier, the head teacher of Largy College, where both girls went to school, spoke about the "utter heartbreak and devastation" following the crash.

Sharon Magennis said the deaths of the "two beautiful girls" were a massive loss to the school.

"Words cannot describes how our school and the community of Clones is feeling at this time," she told Irish broadcaster RTÉ.

"Dlava was always smiling. She was a gorgeous soul - loyal and bubbly and she was always very happy in or around the school.

"She radiated goodness and she was just full of energy."

She explained that Dlava arrived in Ireland in 2018 under the Syrian resettlement programme.

The teenager initially lived in County Kildare for a few months before moving to Clones and joining Largy College.

She soon became "best friends" with Kiea who was a year older than her.

The principal remembered Kiea as a pleasant and courteous pupil who would be much missed by the school community.

"She had a great love of children and she hoped to go on to study childcare at third level and now that is a dream that will just not be realised,"

Kiea was from a family of 11 children and was predeceased by her brother Jason.

The car crashed into a tree, according to Gardaí (Irish police), who say previous crashes will be reviewed as part of their investigation

Five people were in the car when it crashed at Legnakelly, on the main road between Clones and Smithborough, at about 18:45 local time Monday.

Two others were critically injured, including an 18-year-old woman and the 60-year-old man who was driving the vehicle.

The 18-year-old woman, who is believed to be Dlava's sister, is in a critical but stable condition in Cavan General Hospital.

The fifth person in the car, an 18-year-old man, was treated in the same hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

The driver was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where he remains in a critical condition.

A priest who attended in the immediate aftermath of the collision said it was a "very difficult situation" to face.

Fr Peter Corrigan ministered to the victims and comforted those at the scene.

"It was a shock, especially to see the grief. All you could do was pray, be there, help the people," he said.

"Usually [when] you face death, it's the death of an old person who has lived their life, but to face that situation is very, very difficult."

The teenagers were travelling to a debutants' ball - a dinner-dance for school-leavers - in the Westenra Arms Hotel in Monaghan.

There have been previous collisions on the same road and those incidents are to be reviewed as part of the Garda (Irish police) investiation.

Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme, Fr Corrigan said the young people in the town were struggling to come to terms with their loss.

"They couldn’t really comprehend the great change that had come about within a very short time," he said.

"A young person taken from them, a person they had known and grown up with and went to school with – they were gone and there was nothing that could bring them back."

But Fr Corrigan said the people of the town wanted to attend in person to show solidarity and "share in the grief of the McCann family".

Members of the public lined the streets in Clones on Tuesday night

Youth worker Caolan Faux was among the mourners who attended Tuesday's guard of honour for Ms McCann.

"There was just a profound silence over of the town and it just was a community standing shoulder to shoulder in horror," he told Good Morning Ulster.

Mr Faux is the director of Youth Work Ireland for the Cavan-Monaghan area and his organisation has been supporting the victim's teenage friends.

"The young people that we’re working with, they are just numb," he said.

"It’s been a harrowing trauma and they are in shock, grief, loss, despair.

"Language only does so much to convey these young people’s experience this last few hours."

He added that youth workers have extended their hours to provide a "safe space" for grieving teenagers in Clones Youth Centre.

Young people embraced as the hearse carrying the remains of Kiea McCann arrives in Clones

Government minister Heather Humphreys, who visited the teenagers' school on Tuesday, called it an "unimaginable tragedy".

"This is a very, very sad day for Clones and there is a cloud over the town now and people just feel so upset" she told reporters outside Largy College.

Ms Humphreys represents the Cavan-Monaghan constituency in the Dáil (Irish parliament) and is also the minister for social protection.

"It is every parent's worst nightmare because nobody expects to get that phone call," she said.

The N54 was closed for a forensic examination, but it has since reopened.

Gardaí have appointed senior investigating officer and appealed to witnesses or anyone with dash-cam footage to contact them.

A floral tribute has been left outside the girls' school