A minute’s silence will be observed at Ireland’s Euro 2016 qualifying match against Poland in Warsaw in memory of 10 people who died in a fire that devastated a Travellers site south of Dublin.
The tribute at Sunday night’s football match will come after Ireland’s prime minister, Enda Kenny, has ordered flags on all official buildings to be flown at half mast when the victims’ funerals take place.
The names of those who perished in the fire in Carrickmines in the early hours of Saturday mornng have been confirmed. They include a six-month-old baby and a pregnant woman.
Among the 10 people from two families, who were believed to have been together for a christening party, were Tara Gilbert, her husband, Willie Lynch, and their children, Kelsey and Jodie. Tara Gilbert had found out she was pregnant in August, according to family and friends.
The other family who died in the blaze were Thomas and Sylvia Connors and their children, Jim, Christy and six-month-old Mary. The tenth person feared dead is 39-year-old Jimmy Lynch.
The fire, which broke out at portable toilets on the site, is the biggest loss of life for the Irish Travelling community in Ireland.
A member of the Dublin fire service said the fire seemed to have broken out in a prefab before quickly spreading to surrounding units.
It emerged on Sunday that the heat of the blaze was so intense that firefighters had to hose each other down so they could keep water trained on the inferno. It also meant forensic officers could not carry out a fingertip search of the toilets on Saturday.
Kenny described the loss of life as “an unspeakable tragedy”. Books of condolences have been opened at a number of shopping centres and council offices in the south county Dublin area, while prayers for the victims and their families were said at masses across Ireland on Sunday.
