Teen dies after being hit by lightning

A 14-YEAR-OLD boy killed at the weekend by a bolt of lightning was described yesterday as a model student and a “lovely young lad”.

Patrick Ryan-Corr died yesterday morning after being hit by lightning while playing just yards from his home in Jobstown, west Dublin, on Saturday.

His parents, two sisters and brother have been left devastated by the freak event — estimated to be a one-in-10 million chance.

The young boy was thriving at an alternative education centre in Jobstown, Tallaght, which offers courses for those not attending mainstream school.

“He’s been on the full-time alternative education programme here since last September and he got on very well,” said John Keogh, manager of the Citywise centre.

“He hadn’t missed a day’s school. He had just recently got a prize at Easter for best attender. He got a snooker cue, which meant a lot to Paddy, as he was very keen on snooker. He was very popular with all his peers and the staff. It’s a real shock for everyone.”

Relatives and friends yesterday tried to comfort the boy’s family, including his distraught mother Ann, who lives in Kilclare Crescent.

“He was a very well-liked young lad,” said local parish priest Fr Val Martin. “He was big into engineering. He was always getting old bikes and putting them together outside his front garden, hammers and things all over the place. He was a lovely, normal young lad.”

Fr Martin said it was “a big, big shock” one of the children in the area could be killed by lightning.

The boy was playing in a green area between Kilclare Gardens and Kilclare Avenue at about 4.30pm when there was a heavy thunderstorm.

Eyewitnesses said he was running for cover to a wall when he was struck by a bolt of lightning. He suffered injuries to the left side of his head and feet.

Desperate efforts were made by neighbours and the ambulance crew to revive him. He was brought to Tallaght Hospital, where doctors worked overnight to save his life.

However, he never regained consciousness and died in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Local Sinn Féin councillor Cathal King said the area was in deep shock: “It’s a total freak of nature. How do you cope with that, particularly the family, but the community is very shocked, such a young child to go like that.”

Local Fianna Fáil TD Charlie O’Connor said: “It’s one of those things people will not be able to explain, they’ll just be so shocked and upset. Their hearts and sympathies go out to the family.”

Lightning deaths are very rare and in a recent health awareness campaign, the risk of such an event in Ireland was estimated to be one in 10 million.

A 29-year-old British soldier was killed in April 2006 when hit by lightning on the top of Mourne Mountains in Co Down.

Dáil records from 1963 report at least one workman had died after being struck by lightning.