Friday will mark two years since Ashling was murdered by Jozef Puska at the age of 23 while she exercised along the Grand Canal Bank, at Cappincur, Tullamore.
“Of course, we will go to the canal [next Friday]… It’s still painful, very painful for me and Kathleen, Cathal, Amy and Ryan,” Raymond Murphy told the Sunday Times.
“What she did in her short 23 years – had she lived, what would she have done in another 23 years?”
Mr Murphy said he visits his daughter’s grave every day as it makes him feel closer to her.
The devastated father described Ashling, a primary school teacher at Durrow National School and musician, as “our little angel”.
He recalled the time during the Covid-19 pandemic when his youngest child was at home with them.
“No matter what was organised, she was in the middle of it. She organised it,” he said.
“Ashling came in and never left, she never left the house. She was with us really the whole time.
“She never got a chance to go to America on a J1 like Amy [her sister] did. She was hoping to go last year – [that] would have been her summer.”
Ashling Murphy
Mr Murphy spoke about the great impact his daughter had on the Tullamore community and how her murder affected the entire country.
“Everyone loved her. No matter where she went,” he said.
A number of Tullamore community members have paid tribute to Ashling ahead of the two-year anniversary of her death.
Principal of Durrow National School, James Hogan, described her as a “shining light” and “kind, caring young woman”.
“[Her family] should be ever so proud of Ashling, of what she achieved and the strong legacy she has left behind,” he told the same publication.
Ashling’s second-anniversary mass will take place at 7pm on Thursday in St Brigid’s Church, Mountbolus.