Five people have died in car crashes since Sunday night, including a young mother and her 14-year-old son.
Tina Kelly, who was in her 30s, and her teenage son Joey died in a single-vehicle crash on a link road for the N63 near Ballaghlea National School, Ballygar, Co Galway, on Sunday evening.
Joey was a member of St Brendan’s GAA Club and had finished his first year in Coláiste Mhuire, Ballygar.
The school held a gathering in his memory yesterday, at which parish priest Fr Michael Breslin said his abiding memory of Joey was his constant smile.
Ms Kelly’s sister Carol died in December 2014 following an asthma attack.
The second annual Carol Kelly Memorial Walk which was due to take place next week has been cancelled.
Known for his smile
“Joey was always smiling, and after going to the gathering in the school, that was what everyone knew him for,” Fr Breslin said, “but this will be a terrible loss for the family
“We are all struggling in the community at the moment. We are so close-knit here, just outside Ballygar, and everyone is shattered.”
County mayor and local Fianna Fáil councillor Michael Connolly expressed his sympathy for the Kelly family.
“I know her parents, Tom and Margaret, from talking to them over the wall. And they would be lovely people. You couldn’t meet nicer people.”
Anyone with information on the crash has been asked to contact Ballygar Garda station on 090-662 4512.
Victims named
In Northern Ireland, police have also appealed for witnesses to assist in their investigation into the crash in Randalstown.
The victims were named as Michelle McStravick (35) from Randalstown and Lorraine Clyde (56) from Antrim.
The two women were travelling in a car that was involved in a collision at the junction of Church Road and Moneyrod Road in Randalstown shortly before 8am yesterday.
The man and woman in the other car suffered non-life- threatening injuries in the crash, according to the PSNI.
Sinn Féin Assembly member Declan Kearney offered his sympathy to the relatives of the two women. “I also hope that the others who were injured in this incident make a full recovery,” he said.
Gardaí at Leixlip Co Kildare were last night investigating a single vehicle crash which occurred at Ladychapel, Maynooth at 3.15pm yesterday afternoon.
A 38-year-old man was fatally injured when the 4X4 he was driving collided with a ditch.
A female passenger was taken to Naas General Hospital with minor injuries.
The road was closed to facilitate an examination by Garda Forensic Collision Investigators but has since reopened.
