In memory Schools nationwide to hold minute's silence for murdered Ashling Murphy

Education unions are asking all schools across the country to fall silent for a minute at 11am, tomorrow, in memory of Ashling Murphy.

The timing coincides with the start of the Requiem Mass for the 23-year-old primary teacher, who worked in Durrow National School, Tullamore, Co Offaly.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), the Association of Secondary Teachers’ Ireland (ASTI), the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) and Fórsa, which represents other school staff, issued a joint appeal for the gesture of solidarity.

They remembered Ashling as a “beloved primary school teacher, taken far too soon.”

Ashling (23) was killed in a crime that is still being classified as “random” as she was out for a run on the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore at around 4pm last Wednesday, having finished work just an hour before at Durrow National School.

Ashling’s family and boyfriend were allowed to visit the scene yesterday accompanied by Gardai, and spent a few moments at the spot where she died.

They then returned home to the town land of Blue Ball where lines of people queued to pay their respects at the Murphy family home.

Detectives are ready to question the chief suspect in the murder as early as today.