Arizona remembers Ashling Murphy

The Tullamore - Chandler Sister Cities organisation held a very moving candlelit vigil and traditional music Seisiun tonight (Friday) in Phoenix, Arizona in memory of Ashling Murphy.

The 23-year old primary school teacher from Blueball was attacked and murdered while she was out for a jog on the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore on January 12 last. Ashling was part of an exchange group who travelled to Chandler in 2015 as part of the Tullamore - Chandler Sister Cities Exchange Programme.

Chair of the Chandler - Tullamore Sister Cities Exchange, Ellen Harrington, said the group were anxious to organise an event to honour the young teacher who was so tragically taken from this life.

The group organised a candelit vigil in honour of Ashling, and also held a traditional music seisiún at the Irish Cultural Center and McClelland Library on Central Avenue in Phoenix at 6pm last night (1am Irish time).

In a post on their social media advertising the event, the Exchange Programme quoted a moving line from the Song of Fionula, The Children of Lir which reads: "The wisdom we give is the life that we live, and the best we can be, by the lake and the sea."