8 October 1997
Rock-like faith strengthens blaze survivor
Open Agenda With Tom Shiel
Only a day previously it had been an elegant, if old farmhouse, at the end of a leafy lane, not unlike hundreds in this particular part of the west of Ireland. By dawn on Saturday, three of its four occupants were dead amongst its charred ruins as a pall of gloom settled over an entire community.
Grief was palpable throughout the entire area with particular sympathy for the survivor Rose Curry, a former nurse attached to a Galway hospital, who must live out her remaining years with the pain and terror of what happened vividly etched in her mind.
Still, there were signs in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy that Rose's spirit, bolstered by her strong faith, will endure. Rose was the driver in the family. On Friday night, she packed Martin, Kathleen and Julia into her Corsa car and they headed off on their last trip to Mass in Barnacarroll Church, picking up their neighbour, Mrs. Mary Shaughnessy on the way.
Rose was visited in hospital on Monday by the local Parish Priest, Monsignor Dominick Grealy who reported that she was bearing up well despite her grievous loss.
"Her faith has stood her in good stead", the Monsignor, who was one of the first on the fire scene on Saturday morning, commented.
KINDLY
Despite her shock and grief, Mary Shaughness, a kindly woman wanted to make tea for reporters on Saturday, There was a continuous procession of visitors to her house. People wanted to pay sympathy. She had been so near to the Currys she was being treated like family.
Mary fondly recalled the Mass in Barnacarroll and the friends who had departed without having time to say farewell.
"On the way home we were all talking about the lovely Mass which Fr. O'Gorman had celebrated. He was talking about coming to terms with sudden death. Little did we know what was going to happen.
"The Currys were lovely people, living Saints. They sometimes went to Mass a number of times every day. Julia ran a stall selling souvenirs but she wasn't in it for the money. She'd be more often in at Mass than in the stall".
The neighbouring Brodericks were in and out of Shaughnessy's house all day, lending support, asking was she alright, helping her field questions.
Twenty year old Vanita Broderick, a third year medical student at University College, Galway, was outside the Curry farmhouse as firemen with breathing apparatus dampened the flames and located the bodies which were carried from the gutted building on a stretcher.
REMARKABLE
Then, Vanita beheld a sight which will stay with her for the rest of her life. Amongst the soot blackened debris she spotted a flash of colour. It was a photo of the Blessed Virgin Mary, charred at the edges but the picture itself was untouched by the flames.
"Wasn't that remarkable", declared Mrs. Shaughnessy. "All around was burnt but the picture of Our Lady survived along with her crown. Vanita took the picture away as a souvenir for Rose. There wasn't anything else left in the building".
Seamus Broderick, who runs a B&B at Cloondace with his wife, Josie, was leaving somebody home from the all-night vigil around 6 a.m. when he spotted a glow in the distance. At first he thought it was a brushfire.
"Then I realised Currys house was ablaze and I drove up the laneway. Rose was in the yard calling to the other members of her family. I shouted too but there was no response".
Mr. Broderick continued: "The house was very nearly engulfed in flames and the heat was intense. I rang 999. There was nothing else I could do".
Ironically, Fr. John O'Gorman's Homily at the Curry's last Mass referred to pain and sudden death. Fr. O'Gorman asked: "Why do the good suffer while the wicked prosper?"
The next First Friday Mass in Barnacarroll will be dedicated to the Currys who were exemplary in their devotion to the Church and the way they cared about their neighbours.
There's no doubt that's exactly the way the victims, who have ancestral connections with the Apparition Visionaries, would like to be remembered.
