Three members of the same family who died in a crash near Cashel, Co Tipperary have been named.
In a statement, Supt Kieran Ruane expressed his condolences to the family and friends of Thomas O’Reilly (45), Bridget O’Reilly (46) and their grandson Tom O’Reilly (3) who lost their lives when the car they were travelling in crashed at about 8.50pm on Tuesday.
They were rear-seat passengers in the car when it hit a wall on Windmill Road about 2.5km from the centre of Cashel. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.
The child’s father Tom O’Reilly Jnr (22) and his mother Diane, who is also 22, were the driver and front-seat passenger in the car. They were both seriously injured in the crash and are being treated at Tipperary University Hospital.
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Thomas and Bridget O’Reilly had four sons and six daughters, ranging in age from 22 to eight. Tom jnr and Diane O’Reilly.
A Garda family liaison officer has been appointed to the family to provide support and the family will be kept updated as to the course of the investigation.
A Traveller support group in Co Tipperary has confirmed that it has been in touch with the wider family.
“We have been in contact with a number of members of the family and the extended family – they are devastated. It’s shocking for them really trying to come to terms with what has happened with three people being killed and two others seriously injured in hospital,” said Nuala Martin of the Tipperary Rural Traveller Project.
Ms Martin said the project had a primary healthcare worker based on the Waller’s Lot halting site in Cashel where the family lived and they were liaising with the families to try to arrange support for them.
“They are very extended family with many members who need a lot of support. They are primarily in a close network in Cashel and predominantly on that site but the woman who passed away has family members in Clonmel and Waterford and Kilkenny so they will all need support.”
Ms Martin said her organisation had also been in touch with Tusla and Youth Work Ireland, as well as the HSE.
“We would also appeal for privacy for them at the moment as they try to cope with the intense shock of what has happened; as they try to come to terms with not just losing three family members including a three-year-old little boy but two other members seriously ill in hospital.
“This family are people of strong faith and everybody in the family and extended family is praying that the couple in hospital would pull through. They would have a great faith and they would lean into that faith for support at this time so they are praying with hope for those injured,” she said.
Local parish priest Fr Enda Brady said the family was in everyone’s thoughts and prayers in Cashel.
“It’s so sad and what makes it twice as bad is the fact that there is a child involved and three generations of the one family and the fact that Clonmel happened only a couple of days ago because with Clonmel there was shock all around Cashel because there would be family connections here.
“There’s a complete numbness around the town this morning – obviously our prayers with the family and with the two members still in hospital and hopefully they will come through. I have no doubt the community will rally around and provide every support they can but it’s still unspeakably sad.”
Mayor of Cashel Cllr Declan Burgess said the deaths had caused shock and numbness in the local community.
“It’s just awful particularly coming just days after the terrible tragedy in our neighbouring town of Clonmel on Friday night when four young people died, we’ve been struck with another blow,” he said.
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“It’s hard to comprehend. People are just shocked and numbed at the loss of three lives but it’s an ongoing situation with two others still quite critical in Tipperary University Hospital in Clonmel, so we are still trying to come to terms with the enormity of it all.”
Gardaí closed Windmill Road following the collision and diversions were put in place to allow a forensic crash investigator to carry out an examination of the scene on Wednesday morning while the car also remains at the scene pending an examination.
Gardaí have set up an incident room in Cahir Garda station to investigate the collision and they appealed to anyone who may have travelled the road between 8.30pm and 9.15pm and may have dash cam footage to contact them at Cahir Garda station on 052 617 7640.
Funerals for Clonmel crash victims
Meanwhile, preparations are continuing in nearby Clonmel and Kilcash for the funerals of three Leaving Certificate students and a 24 year old man who died when their car crashed just outside Clonmel at around 7.30pm last Friday night.
Friends Grace McSweeney (18), Nicole Murphy (18) and Zoey Coffey (18) and Ms McSweeney’s older brother, Luke (24) all died in the single vehicle crash which happened at Mountain Road in Clonmel as the three Leaving Cert friends were preparing to head out to celebrate their exam results.
On Wednesday, the chair of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) Liz O’Donnell expressed concern about the “escalating road fatalities”. There has been an upward trend, with 125 road fatalities to date this year, an increase of 25 from the same time in 2022.
Before Covid there had been a steady decrease in road fatalities, she told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show. The number of fatalities had been decreasing from a high of 365 in 2006. Road safety needed to come back to the top of the political agenda, she said, urging motorists to observe speed limits.
In a statement released on Wednesday afternoon, Ms O’Donnell said she was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy. “My sincere condolences, and those of the Road Safety Authority, go out to the family and friends of those involved, and anyone who is affected by this unfathomable tragedy. My thoughts are with the affected communities in Tipperary who are reeling at this sad time, occurring only four days after another terrible incident in Tipperary that claimed the lives of four young people in Clonmel,” she said.
