Madam, – Today, it is certain in my mind that no one outside the Inishowen peninsula can fully comprehend the depth of grief overflowing within our community. Already dismissed as “a tragedy”, forgotten by the outside world, grief will once again overwhelm its inhabitants.
Although we may never know what really happened on the night of July 11th to cause the worst car crash in the country’s history, we can be sure of a few details. Hedgerows were overgrown, visibility, therefore was undoubtedly diminished. Many of the roads these young men travelled on are in very poor condition, increasing the risk of travel. Public transport in Donegal is sparse and in Inishowen, on a weekend, almost non-existent. Those injured were far from the “local” hospital in Letterkenny, and from the medical attention they so desperately needed. And deserved.
This week, eight families are burying a loved one prematurely. Like so many others before them in the tiny but proud, close-knit community of Inishowen, mothers who had given their sons the best possible start in life have had to endure the most unnatural heartache of burying a child. Over the past decade, Inishowen has been crippled by young road deaths. With each one the light of a family’s future is dimmed, a friend’s life is dulled and a girlfriend’s heart is bruised by loss.
No one outside this congregation can understand that the statistics mean that almost every young person of a certain age (15-25) has buried at least one friend. No one can comprehend that the pain is so universal that we feel the grief of a road death as one. No one feels the sick trepidation of the emergency services who are sure to know the victim’s loved ones. No one knows because they are allowed to forget.
The people of north east Donegal will need the support of the whole nation to overcome the years of grief, loss and isolation. They need more political representation, jobs, hospitals, schools and infrastructure to help save their future.
Inishowen is a peninsula, not an island. We are physically attached to the rest of Ireland, please may we be emotionally attached too? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – It would seem, from both statistical and anecdotal evidence, that poster and television campaigns showing appeals from injured youths, and/or bereaved parents are having little effect on their intended target audience.
Perhaps blanket coverage of the photographs of the two vehicles involved in this week’s carnage might attract more than a passing glance from young men devoted to their first cars.
I do not mean to sound cynical. It is a desperate time for the whole community, and surely all our prayers are with them, and with the surviving driver. – Yours, etc,