At the end of a week described as "beyond awful" by Fr Michael Porter, this was a different family frozen in tragedy. Marian and PJ O'Brien held hands with their remaining children . . . Paul, Leanne and Darragh . . . and aided Ciara's grandmother, Peggy O'Brien, in a heartrending tableau of mutual support.

The three coffins of the young mother and her little girls wound their way the short distance from Ciara's family home in Burt to the circular stone church of St Aengus. Tearful neighbours, who had queued to pay their respects since the bodies arrived on their marathon journey from Wexford on Friday, described Leanne (5) and Shania (3) as "little angels", clothed in white cotton dresses in open coffins. Their mother's coffin had remained closed throughout the wake.

A guard of honour formed by Burt GAA club lined the sweeping road to Buncrana as the procession passed en route to St Aengus's Chapel. Inside the church gates, another honour guard comprised children from the local national school, which Ciara attended, in their navy and grey uniforms.

At the outset, Fr Porter observed: "In Boolavogue this morning, the Dunne family are celebrating the funeral of Adrian." The 30-year-old blind father and husband was not mentioned again for the remainder of the obsequies.

It was an acutely dignified funeral. Four priests assisted Fr Porter, including a representative of the Bishop of Raphoe. As the coffins entered the church . . . Ciara's abundant with trumpet lilies and white roses; simple showers of gypsophelia on the children's . . . tears flowed in the capacity congregation which included local politicians Jim McDaid and Dinny McGinley.

Many mourners who could not squeeze into the capacious church stood outside in the April sunshine.

"Looking at the three coffins in front of me, " said Fr Porter in his homily, "it is hard to think that it is an adult and two children, and not three children in front of me. There was such a child-like innocence about Ciara and that is why she related so well to children."

St Aengus's choir sang 'Be Not Afraid', 'Here I Am Lord' and 'The Lord Is My Shepherd'. When two little girls of similar ages to Leanne and Shania sang 'Amazing Grace', the poignancy was hard to bear. "I once was lost but now I'm found; was blind but now I see, " they sang, standing to the side of the coffins holding the murdered sisters who had inherited their parents' visual impairment.

On behalf of the family, Fr Porter thanked the community for its messages of support, "and, indeed, throughout Ireland and beyond, as far away as France". Then, remarking that "the grief is so deep, the loss so immense, " he led the still swelling crowd of mourners to the graveyard.

As the coffins were lowered into the ground, the only audible sound was the heart-wrenching sobbing of Ciara's sister, Leanne, picked up by loudspeakers installed on the hillside looking serenely out at Lough Swilly. In a final gesture of goodbye, Marian O'Brien scattered longstemmed white roses into the graves of her daughter and grandchildren.

As the crowd left the graveyard, many headed to the Grianan Hotel, invited by the O'Brien family for refreshments. It was here that Ciara's uncle, PJ McDermott, was due to hold his wedding reception yesterday afternoon until it was postponed. Two floral tributes stood out from the massed flowers on the fresh grave. Both were shaped as teddy bears . . . one composed of pink and white carnations, the other of purple and white. The attached message read: "Always remembering the two little angels." They were sent by the residents of Moin Rua Estate in Monageer where the family had lived these past 11 months and where they died so shockingly and inexplicably last weekend.