Teenager dies on family farm

HEALTH and Safety Authority officials will visit the scene of a tragic family farm accident which claimed the life of a teenager on Saturday afternoon.

Shane Gleeson (15) from the Nire Valley, Co Waterford, was pronounced dead on arrival at Clonmel District Hospital.

His younger brother Conor found him lying beneath a tractor on the farm around 3.30pm. Efforts to resuscitate him failed.

The exact circumstances of the tragedy aren’t clear and will be fully investigated by the HSA officials when they visit the scene today.

Son of Jim and Mary Gleeson, the dead boy was a student at Clonmel CBS and was one of the most exciting hurling and football prospects in Waterford.

A neighbour of the family, Waterford County GAA Board chairman Paddy Joe Ryan, said the weekend is the saddest ever in the valley. He said that Shane had the potential to become one of Waterford’s greatest hurlers and footballers.

“It is impossible to describe in mere words the sense of pain and devastation that is being felt all over the Nire right now,” said Mr Ryan. “The Gleeson family is a pillar within our community and the loss of Shane in such tragic circumstances is incalculable’’.

A junior hurling championship game involving Shane’s club, Fourmilewater, was called off on Saturday night while the tricolour flew at half mast at Fraher Field, Dungarvan. There was a minute’s silence before the Kilrossantry/Clashmore senior football championship game.