A father and two children who were killed when their car plunged off the road into Lough Foyle in Co Donegal Thursday night have been named by gardaí.
They were John Mullan (49) and his children Tomás, aged 14, and Amelia, aged six, from Moville.
Their mother Geraldine Mullan (45) was also in the car, but survived the crash and raised the alarm.
The family was returning from a day out in Derry when they lost control of their vehicle and careered down an embankment and into Lough Foyle.
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Mrs Mullan managed to get onto the upturned wreckage of the car and was rescued. She was taken to Letterkenny University Hospital where her injuries are described as not life-threatening. Gardaí said she has been left severely traumatised.
Garda Supt Eugene McGovern of Buncrana Garda station was at the scene of the incident.
Wet and windy
He said conditions were poor, and the night was wet and windy.
He also explained how the stretch of road at the Three Trees near Quigley’s Point where the accident occurred had recently been resurfaced and investigators would examine if this may have contributed to the crash.
“We knew fairly early on that we were dealing with a family situation here and it was very difficult,” he said.
“We still don’t know what caused Mr Mullan to veer off the road but we will carry out a full investigation into all the circumstances.
“It was a wet and windy night, and the stretch of road where the crash happened had recently been resurfaced so that will form part of our investigation.”
Supt McGovern said the loss of Mr Mullan and the two children has come as a great blow to the area.
“It is just difficult to find words for the families involved. Mr and Mrs Mullan’s families have been informed of the situation and that is why we are now releasing their names,” he said.
“This is an awful tragedy for the immediate families but also for the wider community as the family are well known and respected in the locality.”
Background
John and Geraldine Mullan and their two children had spent Thursday together as a family.
Both John and Geraldine had been working hard; John was building up the family business - a garden centre in their home town of Moville, Co Donegal - after its enforced closure during the coronavirus pandemic, while Geraldine had been on the “front line”, as Fr John Farren put it, as a nurse manager in the cancer unit in Letterkenny General Hospital.
But with their children Tomás and Amelia due back at school next week, they had decided to take a week’s holiday to spend as a family. “Every day they were going somewhere,” said Fr Farren. “They wanted to give the wains [CHILDREN]something to enjoy before they went back to school.”
Thursday evening was spent at an entertainment complex in Derry with a cinema and a bowling alley; as John began driving home at about ten o’clock, it was dark, and the weather conditions were terrible, with heavy rain and strong winds.
The front wheel of the car went off the road at Three Trees and plunged down the embankment into Lough Foyle.
Geraldine managed to escape and pulled both children from the car, but was unable to save them.
‘Wiped out’
The bodies of John, Tomás and Amelia were recovered and laid out in a tent which had been erected on the road; Fr Farren administered the last rites, and together they prayed.
“Her whole family had been wiped out in one go,” he said. “She was totally distraught.”
“I anointed the bodies, and she made the sign of the cross on each forehead and we prayed,” he said.
“I asked them to look after her, as she had looked after them.”
Even amidst her grief, Fr Farren said, Geraldine took time to thank the emergency services at the scene for their efforts. “Even though she was so distraught, she was so grateful for what people were trying to do,” he said.
Moville Community College, where Tomás was due to begin Third Year next week, said in a statement that it was “grieving the loss of three members of our school community” and were “deeply saddened by their deaths.
“We also keep in our thoughts the children’s mother Geraldine, and wish her a speedy recovery.”
Tomás, the school said, was an “extremely popular second-year student with a close circle of friends”, who loved judo and was a keen musician, and who would be deeply missed.
“One of my abiding memories of Tomás will be of a young man walking to his music lessons with his accordion slung over his back,” one of his teachers wrote.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the wider families and friends of Tomás, John and Amelia at this time.”
On Friday morning the road remained closed in both directions as gardaí worked to determine the cause of the crash. Their investigation will consider whether recent resurfacing work, and the weather conditions at the time, played a part in the accident.
They have appealed for any witnesses to contact them at Buncrana garda station.
“There have been so many tragedies all in that one area,” Fr Farren said, “but it is an awful thing to go to a place and find children lying dead there.
“Their potential is wiped out, their future is gone, and for their mother, her future has been completely changed.”
‘Total silence’
The community in Moville, he said, had been left utterly shocked by the tragedy. “There is just total silence over the place.”
In Moville on Friday morning that sense of shock was palpable on the main street, with many local people expressing their sadness at the loss of a well-known and well-liked businessman in the town, and his two children, as well as their concern for Geraldine as the only survivor.
One woman described how Geraldine - who was originally from the west of Ireland - met John when she came to care for his mother, who was very ill. “She arrived to look after his mother, and they fell in love. It was like a fairytale, really.”
“I grew up with John,” said another woman, “and he was a lovely, quiet man, very family orientated. “Everything with him was about the family, and with her as well, it was all about the kids. Everything was for and with the kids.”
“The whole town knew them, because everyone used the garden centre, said shopkeeper Mary McElhinney.
“It’s so devastating. How could you even come to terms with that? A home is not a house, a home is people, and she has nothing to come back to.”
Anybody who may have been in the area and witnessed the accident is asked to contact Buncrana Garda Station on (074) 9320540, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
Local Donegal TDs Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Pearse Doherty have expressed the sympathy of the community following the incident.
“This is such a heartbreaking tragedy, and myself and Deputy Pearse Doherty want to convey our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of the man and two children who have died,” Mr Mac Lochlainn said.
“The people of Inishowen and Donegal have suffered more than most from road tragedies over the years, and we have no doubt that our people will do all that we can to support the devastated family at this terrible time, and in the time ahead”.
