Two men have died in fatal crashes over the weekend.
Gardaí have appealed for witnesses to a fatal road crash which claimed the life of jockey John O'Connor, who was aged 20, on the main Mallow-Killarney Road in North Cork on Saturday evening.
Separately, another man in his 20s died when the car he was driving hit a fence in Cavan on Sunday.
Mr O'Connor from Lismire near Newmarket was fatally injured when his car was in collision with a bus near the turn off for Lombardstown on the N72 at about 6.15pm on Saturday.
He was travelling west towards Kanturk and Newmarket when he hit the Bus Éireann bus travelling eastwards some four kilometres from Mallow town.
The emergency services responded quickly but Mr O’Connor was pronounced dead at the scene and his body was removed to Cork University Hospital for a postmortem on Monday morning.
The driver of the bus was taken to Cork University Hospital as a precautionary measure. The three passengers on the bus at the time were uninjured.
Gardaí in Mallow appealed to anyone who may have witnessed the collision or who was travelling on the road just prior to the crash to contact them at Mallow Garda station on 022-31450.
The late Mr O’Connor was one of three children of James and Mary O’Connor who farm at Lismire and he is survived by his parents and his siblings, Barry and Maeve.
Mr O’Connor, who was training at the Racing Academy and Centre for Education in Co Kildare, was closely associated with trainer Eugene O’Sullivan whose yard is in Lombardstown in North Cork.
In Cavan, gardaí were investigating a crash in which another man in his 20s died on Sunday.
He was the driver and only occupant of a car that hit a fence on the roadside at Lower Lavey on the N3 at about 5.38pm. A Garda spokesman said the local coroner had been notified. The road was sealed off on Sunday night for a forensic collision investigation.
Gardaí in Cavan have appealed for witnesses.
