Family fly to comfort children orphaned in tragic car crash
More photos:Wednesday June 17 2009
THE family of an Irish couple killed in a horrific car crash in the US have travelled to the country to comfort their three orphaned children.
Two well-known Irish GAA figures, Joe O'Connell (50) and his wife Ann (44), were killed in the crash in Iowa as they travelled to the West Coast from their US home for a family holiday.
At the time of the crash, the family's people carrier was being driven by their 15-year-old daughter Sarah, who was gaining experience behind the wheel months after getting her learner's permit, according to the Iowa State Patrol in the US.
The two older children Sarah and brother Colman (13) were discharged from hospital last night.
The youngest child Maeve (10) was described as critical but stable in paediatric intensive care at the University of Iowa hospital following the smash on the four-lane stretch of highway on Sunday evening.
Both Mr O'Connell, from Causeway, Co Kerry; and his wife Ann, from Abbeyknockmoy, Co Galway, were well known in GAA circles, as he was a former hurling star with Kerry, while she had won an All Ireland Club medal for camogie. Her brothers Mattie and Michael Coleman had also played for the Galway football and hurling sides. The family had emigrated from Ireland to Madison in Wisconsin about nine years ago.
Devastated
Yesterday, Fr Joe O'Brien, parish priest for Abbeyknockmoy, said their families and the small community were devastated following their tragic deaths.
Some members of Mrs O'Connell's (nee Coleman's) large family, which includes her mother Bridget, have travelled to the US to help comfort and look after their children. Her brother Eugene, who lives in the US, has travelled down to Iowa to the children.
In Kerry, Fr Brendan Walsh, parish priest of Causeway, joined the stream of people visiting the home of Mr O'Connell's mother Mai, a former nurse.
"There is an air of absolute shock and disbelief," Fr Walsh said.
The concern was especially for the children who have been left without parents, Fr Walsh added.
Tributes were paid by many of Mr O'Connell's former teammates, including Eddie Murphy, who described him as a well educated and highly intelligent man.
Close friend and former teammate Maurice Leahy had met Mr O'Connell a few weeks previously when he was on a business trip to Ireland. "He was very talented, a good hurler and a strong man," he said. "We [Causeway] hadn't won a Championship for 47 years, and then we won four in a row. Everyone would know about him."
According to the Iowa State Police, the crash occurred after the Honda Odyssey van drifted on to the right shoulder of the four-lane Highway 61; the driver then attempted to correct it.
The van went off the roadway and all the passengers except the driver were thrown from the vehicle when it overturned several times.
Sgt Matt Stammeyer, from the Iowa State Patrol, said the police believed the driver of the vehicle, Sarah, was the only one wearing a safety belt.
"It's a very tragic situation," Dennis Hughes, chief of safety programmes for the Wisconsin State Patrol, told the Irish Independent. "Two lives were snuffed out, and three lives have been changed forever."
All of the children went to school in the Wisconsin city of Madison where the family had set up home.
The crash happened shortly after the school term had finished, and just two days earlier Sarah's Madison Memorial High School soccer team had played in the state tournament.
Family friend Kelly Meuer said he had known the family for almost a decade through the soccer team.
He said the family had moved between the US and Ireland on a couple of occasions, but mainly Mrs O'Connell had lived in Wisconsin with the children while Mr O'Connell was away on business. She had worked as a teacher's aide in the Madison School District. Mr O'Connell, who had a background in engineering, worked as a business consultant.
"Joe hadn't seen the kids, because he had been across the sea," Mr Meuer told a US newspaper. "They were going to take two weeks and, honestly, they didn't have an itinerary."
Funeral arrangements have not yet been made.
- Louise Hogan
