The funerals have taken place for the three McGinley children who were found lifeless at their west Dublin home last week

The bodies of Conor, nine, Darragh, seven, and Carla McGinley, three, were discovered lifeless at their west Dublin home a week ago.

Their mother has been charged with their murder.

Three tiny white coffins were carried into the Church of The Holy Family, Rathcoole, on Friday.

Andrew McGinley (right) during the funeral of his children, Conor, nine, Darragh, seven and Carla,

Rathcoole Boys Football Club provided a guard of honour outside in recognition of the boys' love for the sport.

Father Kevin Doherty said: "Their very going from us has left a chasm of absence in our lives.

"It is like a pall of darkness, a shroud of darkness, has come down upon us, and no-one is left untouched.

"This darkness has come into our communities, in Newcastle and in Rathcoole."

Andrew McGinley (centre) watches as a coffin of one of his three children, Conor, nine, Darragh, seven and Carla, three, who were found dead in their home at Parson's Court in Newcastle, in the south-west of Dublin city on Friday, is carried into the Church of the Holy Family in Rathcoole, Dublin

A funeral notice described them as "cherished children" who are "sorrowfully missed by everyone".

Their mother, Deirdre Morley, 43, from Parson's Court in Newcastle, has been charged with their murders.

She appeared before Dublin District Court at the Criminal Courts of Justice on Wednesday evening and was remanded in custody until next Wednesday.

Fr Doherty said: "This darkness has come to our homes, to our families, to parents. And it has come to each one of us, personally.

Andrew McGinley during the funeral of his children, Conor, nine, Darragh, seven and Carla, three, who were found dead in their home at Parson's Court in Newcastle, in the south-west of Dublin city on Friday, at the Church of the Holy Family in Rathcoole, Dublin

"And so, the absence of these three beautiful children cries out to us. It cries out into the sheer darkness of bewilderment and loss that surrounds us.

"And, as it cries out, it brings with it, into our lives, the deepest of pain and heart-wrenching grief."

He said the light of their beautiful lives shone like the brightest of stars in the lives of so many.

"It shone as the light of joy-filled happiness, the light of child-filled fun, the light of a love so wonderful it touched the hearts of everyone," Fr Doherty said.

"This is the love that does not come to an end. It finds its way home to heaven."