Peaceful silence of rosary shattered after stabbing at Tramore church

Eoghan Dalton Reports from Tramore

THE PEACEFUL SILENCE at Holy Cross Church in Tramore was shattered on Tuesday morning when one of the faithful was stabbed while saying the rosary on the altar, leaving the congregation horrified and stunning the seaside town.

A woman in her 50s who was wounded during the incident was rushed to University Hospital Waterford for treatment. Although her injuries were described as serious, gardaí believe they are not life-threatening.

Later in the morning, a man in his 30s was arrested at a nearby house. He was charged by gardaí on Tuesday night and will appear before Waterford District Court on Wednesday morning.

The alleged attacker and victim are local to the town but are not believed to have known each other.

The Co Waterford community was in a state of shock when The Journal visited in the subsequent hours.

“I couldn’t believe it when I heard,” Paul McCusker told us as he was returning to his car from a shop near the church.

“It’s a small town. Word flies around a small community like this and people were shocked that it happened. It’s desperate.”

Local councillor Blaise Hannigan said there was “total disbelief” throughout Tramore afterwards.

“It’s a very safe town, so this isn’t normal, but it would have been horrendous for the people going to mass there this morning,” he said.

“People going to mass daily there are looking for a safe place, it’s part of their routine and a lot of them are senior citizens. They’re all their own type of family who attending Holy Cross during the week, so it’s very difficult for them to have to deal with this.”

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This was echoed by one couple who had moved to Tramore in recent months as part of their retirement plan, and had grown used to seeing the regular stream of parishioners who attend mass midweek.

Explaining how the practice at Holy Cross Church is for regular mass-goers to take it in turns to say the rosary before each daily mass, Hannigan said he understood that the victim in the incident had been reciting it before she was injured.

Hannigan added that a “man had intervened” to put a stop to the alleged attack, with the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore commending the “courage and presence of mind shown by the parishioners who assisted during this frightening incident”, as well as the priests of the parish for their efforts.

The Independent councillor said that the woman was from a respected family locally and he joined the diocese and other locals in wishing her a speedy recovery from her injuries.

“We ask the people of the diocese to pray for the injured woman, for everyone affected by this distressing incident, and for the parish community of Holy Cross, Tramore,” the diocese said in its statement.

Many of those we spoke with personally know the families of both parties, and said they were conscious of sensitivities given it was so soon after the incident.

One woman who was visiting the graves of her family on Tuesday evening told The Journal that people had to recognise how “unbelievable” people found the incident as news broke.

She explained that, in the hours immediately after the alleged stabbing, she had observed commentary on a number of social media accounts where people demanded to know the identity of the man and where he was from.

“They wanted to know if he was a foreigner,” she said.

And you know, I had to stop myself, but I wanted to put in a response to them saying that in all their comments, they never said anything about the woman and hoped that she’d make a recovery.

Gardaí have appealed for any witnesses to come forward, including any person who was near Summerhill, Tramore between 9.15am and 10.15am on Tuesday.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Tramore Garda Station on (051) 391620, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any garda station.