Irish honeymooners cheat death as car ploughs into crowd

AN Irish couple yesterday told how they cheated death on their honeymoon after a stolen car ploughed into a crowded pavement on the Las Vegas strip.

Aidan Nolan and his wife, Rachel Burke, believe they were fortunate to survive the collision which killed two people and injured 12.

The driver, Stephen Michael Ressa, aged 27, was arrested and will face charges of murder and attempted murder because police believe he acted deliberately.

The newlyweds, from Dublin, were outside Bally’s hotel-casino when the Buick came speeding towards them on Wednesday.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Nolan, aged 30, said: “People were going left, right and centre. No one stood a chance.”

Reflecting on the experience, as his 24-year-old wife fought back tears, Mr Nolan said: “Without a doubt, it makes you appreciate what you have.”

Mr Nolan suffered a dislocated right shoulder, broken bones in his left arm and a fractured knee. He will undergo surgery today. His wife sustained fractures to both legs.

The couple expect to be in hospital for a few weeks before returning home. They wed three weeks ago and were on the final leg of their honeymoon after visiting San Francisco, Hawaii and Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, documentation was almost complete yesterday allowing for the return to Ireland of the bodies of an Irish couple killed in a hit-and-run accident in Spain last week.

While funeral arrangements have yet to be finalised, it is expected the bodies of Mattie and Margaret O’Sullivan, from Bantry, Co Cork, will arrive sometime on Wednesday.

Elsewhere, funeral arrangements for Michael ‘Danser’ Ahern, whose badly beaten body was discovered in a freezer in Albufeira on September 15, have been finalised. His remains will be brought to O’Connor Brothers funeral home at North Gate Bridge, Cork, later today.

Rosary will take place at 6.45pm, followed by removal to the Church of the Ascension in Gurranabraher. His funeral Mass will take place at 11am tomorrow with burial afterwards at St Catherine’s cemetery in Kilcully.

Mr Ahern is survived by his sons, Daniel and Stephen, mother Lily and sisters Catherine and Christine.

Five men, including three from Cork and one from Dublin, are being held in Lisbon and Portimao in connection with his death.