Young family is laid to rest after another road tragedy
Sunday July 27 2003
THE parish priest who administered the last rites to three teenage crash victims has described how he thought a fourth man was also dying on the wet roadside.
"The driver lay covered with a blanket and I said the sacrament of anointing," Canon Conor Ryan said. "It is a very, very difficult accident."
Schoolgirl Naomi Mulcahy, 16, and her teenage friends, Seamus Kehoe, 18, and James Ryan, 18, all from the Hospital-Herbertstown area of Co Limerick died at the scene of the two-car accident on Thursday evening.
"The children were known throughout east Limerick. There is total shock," the parish priest added.
Naomi was still at the school which Seamus and James had just left. The two older friends were training to become an electrician and a plumber. They are being buried this morning. Naomi will be laid to rest tomorrow.
The three were travelling in a 12-year-old Toyota Starlet which crashed with a Toyota Avensis at 7pm on Thursday on Caherconlish Road, outside the village of Hospital.
The middle-aged driver of the second car was so seriously injured in the crash that Canon Ryan, who arrived at the scene 15 minutes after the collision, thought he would not live. Garda say the man, who is understood to be from Co Limerick, is in a stable condition in hospital.
Two other teenagers and their four-month-old daughter died in another appalling accident last week. Conor Martin, 18, from Marshallstown, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, his partner Emma Conroy, 17, from Pearse Road, Enniscorthy, and their four-month-old baby, Chloe, died when their car collided with a lorry three miles north of Enniscorthy.
The car was pushed up to 200 yards back along the road, ending up in a ditch. The bodies of the three had to be cut from the car after the accident, which occurred at 12.30pm on Wednesday. Local gardai described the accident as the "worst they had seen in over 20 years". Conor Martin worked as a barman in Enniscorthy, while Emma had just completed her Leaving Certificate at Colaiste Brid.
More than 3,000 mourners attended requiem mass at St Aidan's Cathedral, Scarawalsh, yesterday. Following the service the young family was buried together in St Mary's Cemetery.
Fifteen people have died in road accidents during the last week.
Three of the dead are motorcyclists killed this weekend. A 39-year-old man was found by a walker at 8.30am on Saturday morning at Keelogue, Killishin, Co Laois. The rider's bike appears to have gone out of control and struck a ditch. He was named as Patrick Martin Gorman from Tully Road in Carlow.
Two motorcyclists were killed on Friday evening in separate accidents. A bike collided with a tractor at 6.30pm in Milltownpass, Co Westmeath.The motorcyclist was named as Raymond Moore, 44, from Galway City. And 24-year-old Oliver Joseph Looby of Curraghtowney, Co Leitrim, died when his motorcycle collided with a car at 4pm near Grange, Carrick-On-Shannon, Co Leitrim.
A couple were killed in Co Kerry just after midnight on Monday when their car collided with a 4x4 at Tonavane, Tralee. The woman, who was driving, was named as Carol Muir, 35, from Castlegregory, Co Kerry, originally from Motherwell, Scotland. Her partner, 50-year-old Chris Walsh, was from Dungarvan, Co Waterford. An 11-month-old baby girl died last Saturday from serious head injuries she received when the car she was travelling in crashed with a tractor and trailer at Malbay, Co Clare. She was named as Shauna Hayes.
Three other young people died from injuries sustained in road accidents the same day. Dara Neeson, 26, was killed instantly when his motorbike collided with a car at Mitchelstown, Athboy, Co Meath at teatime on Saturday.The man lived in Cherry Park, Clones, Co Monaghan.
An 18-year-old girl was killed half an hour earlier, at 5pm, following a two-car collision at Creevagh, Ballyhane, Castlebar, Co Mayo. Aisling McGing was a passenger in one of the vehicles.
One of the three men injured during a single-car accident at 4am last Saturday morning on the Dungarvan-to-Youghal road died in Cork University Hospital on Wednesday. He was named as 20-year-old Keith O'Driscoll of Ballymacoda, Co Cork. This week's deaths bring the total number of road deaths in 2003 to 204.
