A 12-year-old boy is being treated in hospital for serious burns he sustained in a collision, which claimed the life of two men, on the Clare/Limerick border in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Gardaí confirmed on Friday evening that the boy is being treated at St James Hospital in Dublin while a 20-year-old man also injured in the collision is being treated at University Hospital Limerick.
The single vehicle collision occurred at Quinspool, Parteen, Co Clare, shortly after midnight when the vehicle they were travelling in struck a steel crash barrier before hitting a stone wall and bursting into flames.
Gardaí have not yet named the two men who died. Their bodies were found inside the burnt out vehicle.
The two who survived the crash are understood to have been thrown from the vehicle on impact.
Postmortem examinations on the bodies of the dead were completed on Friday afternoon and gardaí in a statement said “the formal identification process is currently underway”.
All are understood to be from or have links to the Thomondgate are of Limerick.
Tributes
Tributes placed at crash site on Fridayincluded a bouquet of flowers with a card which read: “To Pa and Jonathan. Ye’ll be always so sadly missed. Rest In Peace boys. Ye’ll be loved always.”
Another said: “Rest in perfect peace ... I hope ye found peace up there, ye didn’t deserve this. Mind each other and yer families. Sweet dreams”.
Local resident Phyllis Shanahan (71) said it appeared the car having hit a barrier "somersaulted" into the air before it "bounced off" her front wall and burst into flames.
She described as “horrendous” the scene outside her home on Thursday morning.
“When they were moving the bodies there was torrential rain. I just felt sad - I was thinking somebody was going to get a knock at the door telling them that their family member was gone ... It isn’t easy,” Ms Shanahan said.
Another local resident said a “bang” woke them up. “It was like an explosion. I looked out and saw a ball of flame”.
Fr Donal McNamara, parish priest, St Munchin's, Limerick, performed the last rites at the scene.
“It was very difficult, I prayed for the repose of their souls. I administered the sacraments to the best of my ability and I tried to keep my composure,” he said.
“I just found it very difficult. I saw a car completely burnt out with two bodies inside. It’s awful for the families,” he said.
‘Dark cloud’
The families and their neighbours in Thomondgate were “totally devastated”, he said. “There is a dark cloud over our parish.”
“How do you deal with it, you have to learn to live with it, but you will never forget it. It haunts you for the rest of your life,” he said.
Fr McNamara manages Thomond Primary School where the 12-year-old attended up until summer. “He’s a lovely kid, tall and blonde haired and he had only made his confirmation last May,” he said.
The boy is understood to be a relative of one of the men who died.
Gardaí are continuing their investigations and have appealed for motorists with any dashcam footage to contact them.
Initially on Thursday garda sources said they believed the bodies found at the scene were that of “a child and an adult”, however in an official statement later gardaí said they were “not in a position to identify the deceased individuals” due to the extent of their burns.