Mother, child drown as jeep washed away

A MOTHER and her young daughter were drowned yesterday when their jeep was washed off a bridge into a flooded river at the entrance to their west Cork farm as they were returning home from a children’s party.

Flash floods claimed the lives of Orla O’Driscoll of Derryduv, Coomhola, Bantry, and her three-year-old daughter, Muire. The woman’s young son, Fionn, six, escaped from the torrent but failed in his attempts to snatch his sister to safety.

The dead woman’s husband Finbarr O’Driscoll was last night being treated for severe trauma.