Rural Tipperary communities numbed by unbearable loss in road traffic tragedy

There was sadness written all over the faces of people as they walked into Mahers Foodstore in the village of Kilsheelan to pick up their Sunday newspapers.

Staring back up at them were the images of the four young people whose lives were taken in an instant in an horrific single car crash in Clonmel on Friday night.
Among them were the smiling faces of two local girls, Nicole Murphy from Toor, Ballypatrick and Zoey Coffey, from Kilsheelan, who tragically lost their lives.

A Nation of Tears, A Nation Mourns, Unbearable Grief - were the headlines that accompanied the images of the young people who lost their lives.

Few words were spoken by locals as they carried out their transaction to buy their Sunday papers that on this occasion relayed the horrendous tragedy that, for once, was unfolding on their own doorstep.
“People just don’t know what to say. Normally they are full of chat when they come in to get their papers on a Sunday morning, but not today,” said Taryn Purcell, a member of staff at the shop.
“Everybody is just very down, they don’t know what to say to one another,” said Taryn.
“When you hear of young people losing their lives in accidents on the road it is mostly far away in Donegal or some other part of the country, you don’t expect it to happen in your own village,” said Taryn.
Taryn said she knew Zoey from meeting her out socially in Clonmel.
“She was great. Zoey was always great to meet out, always full of fun and chat. It is just heartbreaking, she was always smiling and bubbly,” said Taryn.

The village of Kilsheelan had already been in shock from the news of the untimely death on Thursday night of Brian Connolly, a stalwart member of the local GAA club and a local business man.
That sense of sadness in the village was further compounded by the tragic events that occurred in Clonmel the following night.

A woman in Ballypatrick said everybody knew the two girls in the locality because it was a small community.
“It was such an awful tragedy on a night that was supposed to be one of great celebration. We are all shocked by it. We are all holding our own a bit tighter,” she said.
“It is just so sad to see the young people of the area walking around with their heads down and in shock. You can see the sadness everywhere around here,” she said.

DEVASTATION
Sean Nugent, former Tipperary County Board Chairman, said everybody living in the Kilsheelan and Kilcash area were devastated by the tragedy that occurred.
“Our prayers and sympathies go out to all of the families at this very difficult time. There is a real sense of doom over the parish,” said Sean.

“Nobody has the heart to do anything because of the huge shock. Normally there would be young lads pucking a sliothar around up in the field but there has been nobody up in the field all weekend. The tragedy has had an impact on everybody and young people of the parish are devastated,” said Sean.
Declan Geoghegan, Chairman of the Kilsheelan/Kilcash GAA club, said the parish was numbed by the tragedy.
“It is such a shock that people cannot just comprehend it. It is hard to understand that within a few minutes of leaving a house that four young lives were lost. This is such a close community and people just cannot get their heads around it,” said Declan.

UNBEARABLE LOSS
He said the loss in the community was unbearable and you could see from the demeanour of people that it affected everybody.
Declan, who worked with the Department of Transport as the head of Ireland’s search and rescue service, said the horror of such tragedy, no matter what counselling was received, would always stay with you.
He paid special tribute to the members of An Garda Síochána who would have had to go to the homes of the four victims to impart such crushing news.

“No matter what training you get in Templemore, nothing can prepare a guard for that role, that experience of having to call on parents to break such news in the most horrendous of circumstances,” he said.
Declan, who lives in Kilsheelan, but was based in Dublin up to his retirement, said all of the first responders including the fire service and the ambulance personnel who were at the scene of the accident on Friday night in Clonmel deserved great credit for their dedication to their job and their professionalism and in particular for the sensitive manner in which they dealt with the situation in the most traumatic of circumstances.

After 35 years’ working in the service, Declan said the sense of loss and utter devastation to parents’ lives following a tragic bereavement of a child remains in his thoughts.
Every year he goes to Ahakista where there is a memorial to the people who died in the Air India crash in 1985.
“I go there every year and one woman who lost three children in the crash travels from Canada every year for the memorial in June. The woman who I meet every year looks out into the water and thinks her children are going to walk out to meet her,” said Declan who said the sense of loss and despair is overwhelming.