Classmates grieve for Aoife after fatal accident

SCHOOL pals of Aoife Downey have been comforting each other ahead of this evening’s removal for the 15-year-old killed in the tragic weekend sledding accident.

Aoife’s third-year classmates arrived to share their grief at Christ King secondary school in Douglas yesterday morning. About 170 girls are preparing for the Junior Certificate at the Cork school next June, but their minds were on nothing but the loss of their friend as they gathered in the school library.

As they did, Aoife’s 14-year-old friend Chelsea Noonan and one of two teenage brothers also injured in the Saturday afternoon tragedy were recovering at Cork University Hospital, where their condition had improved to stable yesterday. The four were on a makeshift sled which crashed into a tree on snow-covered slopes at Frankfield Golf Club on the southside of Cork, causing fatal head injuries to 15-year-old Aoife.