Couple en route to funeral dies in crash

A HUSBAND and wife on their way to a funeral with an American relative were among five people killed on the nation’s roads over the weekend.

The couple were named locally yesterday as Paddy and Nicola Kelly, from Summerhill in Athlone, Co Roscommon.

Their deaths pushed the death toll on the nation’s road so far this year over the 345 mark - almost 20 more than the same time last year.

The couple, and a male relative who arrived in Ireland on Friday night, died after the Kelly’s Renault Megane was in collision with a truck on a notoriously dangerous stretch of road between Stradbally and Abbeyleix in County Laois on Saturday.

They were on their way to a funeral in Castlecomer, County Kilkenny, when the accident happened shortly after 10.30am at Money Cross, regarded locally as a junction blackspot.

They all died at the scene.

The couple was originally from Co Kilkenny but had relocated to the midlands several years ago.

Meanwhile, gardaí yesterday named the man who died in a single vehicle accident on the M11 on Saturday morning as Joseph Molloy from Kilmurry, Co Wicklow. He was 43.

He was driving southbound when his vehicle went out of control and crashed into the median barrier. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Loughlinstown hospital.

Gardaí also named the young man who died a few hours after a road accident in Co Louth on Friday.

Twenty-year-old Shane Keenan of Durhamstown, Bohermeen, Navan, was a front seat passenger in a car that crashed after 8.30pm. He died later in hospital.

Gardaí also named the victim of an horrific crash that occurred on the Ballinderreen to Kilcolgan Road in Co Galway, sometime between 2.30am and 7am on Friday night.

She was Heidi O’Shea of Silver Strand Lodge, Barna, Co Galway.

Meanwhile, the PSNI appeal for witnesses to a fatal road traffic collision on the Newry by-pass on Thursday.

Olive Mary McGinn, aged 25, from Green Road in Bessbrook died after the white Volkswagen Polo she was driving was involved in a collision with a blue Vauxhall Vectra and a white Mercedes lorry just after 5pm.

The collision occurred just north of the Bernish Road turnoff.

Contact: Newry Police Station on 04830-650222.