“We all know them all.”
Dermot Muldoon was speaking outside Muldoon’s shop and petrol station in the village of Drumconrath, Co Meath, about 20km from the Co Louth road where three men and two women in their 20s died in a road crash just after 9pm on Saturday.
Another man, who lives near Drumconrath, was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda to be treated for serious injuries sustained in the two-car collision at Gibstown, just off the M1 motorway near Dundalk. The Volkswagen Golf in which they were travelling collided with a Toyota Land Cruiser on the L3168 road.
One of the deceased, Alan McCluskey (23), is from the Drumconrath area. Chloe McGee (23) and Shay Duffy (21) came from Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan; Dylan Commins (23) was from Ardee; and Chloe Hipson (21) was originally from Lanarkshire, Scotland, but was living in Carrickmacross.
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A man and woman, also in their 20s, who were in the Land Cruiser, were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
There was a sombre mood at Muldoon’s shop on Sunday as people gathered after Mass in St Peter and Paul’s Church, where the priest, Fr Finian Connaughton, had shared the community’s shock and upset.
“It’s absolutely devastating,” said Muldoon.
He said two of the young men in the crash came from “out the road” and were “hard-working, progressive young chaps”..
A man from Carrickmacross, out for a cycle, who had stopped at Muldoon’s shop, said he knew the family of one of the decreased young women.
“It’s very, very sad.”
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Outside the church, people stood in small groups discussing the terrible news.
“The mood around the parish at the minute, as you can imagine with the tragedy that is after happening, is very, very sad,” said a man who did not want to give his name, standing with two friends at the entrance to the church grounds.
“Five young people. We knew three of the lads. It’s shocking, shocking sad. We’re just thinking of the families at this sad time. You just don’t know what to say.”
“At Mass, people were dumbfounded and shocked at what has happened,” said local Sinn Féin councillor Michael Gallagher.
“It’s devastating news to the village, and people are shocked and devastated and really words cannot explain. They would be two lads who could be very well known in Drumconrath, two respectable families and two respectable young lads.”
The family of one of the deceased was involved in the running of the parish and the local school, he said.
“Really, people are in a state of shock and all of us will pray for the families involved and hope they can get over this terrible tragedy.”
A young woman emerging from Muldoon’s shop said she knew one of the deceased from attending the same primary school, as did a young man who stopped to put air into the tyres of his car.
“There’s just shock, shock about the place, devastation,” said the young man. “It’s really, really sad,” said the young woman. Neither wanted to give their names.
In Drogheda, a Mass took place in the Augustinan Church on Sunday to mark the United Nations World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
Parish priest Fr Colm O’Mahony said the occasion was about not just those who had died or been injured on the roads, but also first responders, doctors, nurses and wider the communities affected by such events.
He said the gathering was “all the more poignant” after the tragedy overnight outside Dundalk.
“When this news strikes, when word comes that loved ones have been lost and injured, we can feel like Christ on the cross, broken, damaged, lost, all alone, isolated,” he said.
Fr O’Mahony said he had worked as a hospital chaplain and had seen first had the impact of road crashes.
“I’ve seen gardaí in tears, I’ve seen nurses and doctors go to extraordinary effort to maintain and sustain life, and I’ve been there with the family to break the news, to sit with them and to hear who the person was,” he said in his homily.
“I know the importance of families knowing this person was loved by those who found them, who took them to hospital, that they were loved by doctors and nurses who did best to restore and maintain life and were loved by the chaplain who came to bless them.”
He added: “We gather and remember and pray, not just for those who have gone before us but those who have survived accidents, and are never the same afterwards, and for all who loved those who were lost.”
