Man who employed crash victims calls for Byrne resignation

A BUSINESSMAN who employed a brother and sister killed in a car crash last Monday has called on Gay Byrne to resign from his position as road safety tzar.

Declan Corbett, co-owner of the Corbett Court Hotel in Kilworth, Co Cork, where Tom and Mary Frewen worked part-time criticised Mr Byrne and Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

“I’m after coming down now from the Frewen household and I think if Gay Byrne, or Michael

McDowell witnessed what I witnessed, he (McDowell) wouldn’t be coming out about this rant blaming the young people of Ireland, taking the blame off himself and Gay Byrne. This is something that really hurt me and the whole locality here, when we heard Michael McDowell on the radio,” an angry Mr Corbett said.

“It is Gay Byrne’s problem. He was given this job. He shouldn’t have been given this job. This is the typical ‘Dublin 4 jobs for the boys’. A job like that should be given to somebody in rural Ireland, somebody like Sean Óg Ó hAilpín that the young people of Ireland will look up to. Sean Óg is a role model on and off the field. I’m asking Gay Byrne today to do the decent thing and resign,” Mr Corbett said.

He added that his staff were equally incensed by the comments made on radio yesterday by Michael McDowell and the former Late Late Show presenter.

“In the space of 36 hours, there were 11 people killed. What is happening? We only hear ranting from McDowell and Gay Byrne. There’s no action being taken and they won’t take any of the blame,” Mr Corbett said.

Another member of staff at the Corbett Court Hotel died in a nearby road accident three months ago. Suzanne Sheehan, a 28-year-old mother of one, died in a car crash outside of Mitchelstown as she returned from a trip to Thurles, Co Tipperary.

Seven years ago another staff member, James Nash, aged 19, was walking home from a dance in Fermoy when he was knocked down and killed by a car near the village of Kilworth.