{"id":178604,"date":"2025-12-07T02:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T02:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/178604\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T02:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T02:51:13","slug":"were-doing-this-to-keep-her-memory-alive-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/178604\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re doing this to keep her memory alive\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ashling Murphy\u2019s<\/a> father has thanked the public for their support, saying a memorial fund aims to \u201ckeep her memory alive\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old teacher was murdered on the bank of the Grand Canal, close to Tullamore in Co Offaly<\/a>, in January 2022.<\/p>\n

Her family have set up the Ashling Murphy Memorial Fund to raise money for causes she believed in.<\/p>\n

Launching a Gaeltacht scholarship and distributing funds in Tullamore on Saturday, Ray Murphy said: \u201cWe\u2019re doing this to keep Ashling\u2019s memory alive and her legacy alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people have been giving us substantial amounts of money for Ashling\u2019s memorial fund and the generosity of people is overwhelming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first of many memorial days we\u2019re going to have here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gaeltacht scholarship funds the attendance of second-level students at Col\u00e1iste Chamuis, Co Galway. Mr Murphy said his late daughter, a primary school teacher and graduate of Mary Immaculate College, was a fluent Irish speaker who had a close affinity with two Gaeltacht areas. Ashling was also a fiddle player and traditional music enthusiast. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe went to Col\u00e1iste Chamuis herself when she was a child and then to the Dingle peninsula when she was in Mary Immaculate College, where she got to play music with the late S\u00e9amus Begley<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Begley, a renowned accordion player from Kerry, performed at a memorial concert for Ms Murphy before his death in January 2023.<\/p>\n

James Hogan, principal of Durrow National School, Co Offaly, where Ashling worked, said she loved the Irish language.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe seanfhocail she used in school every day was \u2018Mol an \u00f3ige agus tiocfaidh s\u00edad\u2019 [Praise the youth and they will flourish],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The first two recipients of the Col\u00e1iste Chamuis scholarships were Gavin Connolly, of Tullamore, and Ciara Cronin, of Balla, Co Mayo.<\/p>\n

They had entered a competition at this year\u2019s National Ploughing Championships<\/a> in Screggan, Co Offaly, where applicants were required to record a video of themselves speaking Irish.<\/p>\n

Mr Hogan said eight further scholarships will be awarded.<\/p>\n

Connolly (17), a student at Tullamore College, said he was delighted to win the scholarship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of interest in Irish and Irish culture, and I know Col\u00e1iste Chamuis is an extremely good college and one of the most renowned in the country and I think the Ashling memorial fund is a very good cause. It unites the whole community after the horrible tragedy that happened and really brought the whole country together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ciara Cronin (15), a transition year student at Balla Secondary School, said she was excited about going to the Gaeltacht for the first time next summer. \u201cAshling was such a beautiful person and similar to me \u2013 I love Irish and I love speaking Irish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Murphy was stabbed to death at Cappincur, Tullamore on the afternoon of January 12th, 2022, while exercising along the canal bank.<\/p>\n

Jozef Puska is serving a life sentence for her murder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ashling Murphy\u2019s father has thanked the public for their support, saying a memorial fund aims to \u201ckeep her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37940,61,60,43,8286],"class_list":{"0":"post-178604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ashling-murphy","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-offaly"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}