Blaze deaths caused 'huge trauma'

A member of the McElhill family carries baby James' coffin

The deaths of seven people in a house fire in County Tyrone inflicted "unbearable suffering and pain" on the community, a priest has said.

Monsignor Joseph Donnelly was speaking at Requiem Mass for Arthur McElhill, Lorraine McGovern and their five children.

The family died in a blaze at their home in Omagh last month.

The funerals had been delayed because of a disagreement over where the family members would be buried.

The couple and their children: Caroline, 13, Sean, seven, Bellina, four, Clodagh, 19 months and nine-month-old James all died in the fire which swept through their home in Lammy Crescent in the early hours of 13 November.

Mediators were believed to have been brought in when it was reported that Mr McElhill was being treated as a suspect in a murder investigation about the fire.

It is a loss so total that words fail to describe the immensity of the event Monsignor Joseph Donnelly

Requiem Mass for the family was held at Sacred Heart Church in Omagh.

Monsignor Donnelly told mourners that a community may have experience of tragedy but it can never become accustomed to it.

"To lose an entire family unit in one instant is unimaginable," he said.

"It is a devastation for the families immediately connected. It is a loss so total that words fail to describe the immensity of the event.

"It has also inflicted unbearable suffering and pain on a whole community, especially the Lammy community, who were traumatised by what happened.

"This was particularly so for the young people in our midst, especially the school children - friends and companions of the children who died."

Pupils from Sacred Heart College and St Conor's Primary School formed a guard of honour outside the church.

After the service, members of both families carried the seven coffins from the church.

Mr McElhill's remains were taken to Ederney, County Fermanagh, while the rest of the family was buried in Corlough, County Cavan, from where Ms McGovern hails.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and the local MP, Sinn Fein's Pat Doherty, represented Northern Ireland politicians at the service.

The Irish government was represented by its minister for children, Brendon Smith, a TD for Cavan.