A community in Waterford came together in grief this week to say a final farewell to Kim and Phillip English and their two young sons, Callum and Jayden, at a joint funeral mass that left few eyes dry.
The priest presiding over the service did not hold back in describing what had happened to the family, calling it an “act of total evil” that had left not just relatives but an entire community “devastated and heartbroken”. The words echoed through the church and summed up what so many people in the room were already feeling.
The four members of the English family were laid to rest together, a detail that made the occasion all the more painful. Parents and children, gone at the same time, remembered side by side in the same ceremony.
Waterford has been visibly shaken since the deaths. Tributes have poured in from locals who knew the family, with many describing Kim and Phillip as warm, well-liked people and their boys as full of life. The kind of family, neighbours said, that you never imagine something like this happening to.
Funerals like this one are rare, and for good reason. The sheer scale of the loss is difficult to process, and for those who packed into the church to pay their respects, the reality of four coffins was a stark and devastating sight.
The local community has been rallying around those affected, with support coming from neighbours, friends, and people who never even met the family but felt compelled to show up. That turnout said everything about how deeply this tragedy has cut through the area.
Investigations into the circumstances surrounding the deaths are ongoing, and the full picture of what happened to the English family continues to unfold. But for those who gathered to mourn them this week, the focus was simply on remembering four people who deserved so much more time.
Kim, Phillip, Callum and Jayden English are gone far too soon, and Waterford will not forget them.