Motorcyclist dies during road race
His death came shortly before a separate incident in Co Kerry claimed the life of another motorcyclist and after two other road traffic fatalities, one involving a girl in Co Cork.
Gardaí last night confirmed that a competitor at the Walderstown Road Races near Athlone had crashed in the seventh race at around 1.20pm. The man, understood to be a 20-year-old from Hillsborough in Co Down, was airlifted to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin but died at 5.30pm.
Elsewhere, a motorcyclist, in his 20s, died last night in Co Kerry after his vehicle collided with a car a mile outside the village of Abbeydorney, north of Tralee, at about 6.20pm. The female driver of the car was uninjured.
It followed the death of a four-year-old girl in Cork on Saturday and the death of a man in Ardee in Co Louth in road incidents.
Gardaí investigating the crash in Co Cork in which Kathleen Delaney from Doneraile, Co Cork, died have asked the public for assistance.
The four-year-old was travelling with her parents and two-year-old sister when the crash happened on the N20 Cork to Mallow road shortly after 4pm on Saturday.
The Ford Transit van in which the family was travelling went out of control and turned on its side at Knocnabehy near the exit for Grenagh.
Kathleen suffered serious injuries and was rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital (CUH), where she later died.
The three other members of her family were taken to CUH for treatment, with Kathleen’s younger sister being treated for non life-threatening injuries.
Fr Aidan Crowley of Grenagh parish said it was an “unspeakable tragedy”.
“You get a bit of good weather and then you have the drownings and now this accident,” he said.
“It is unimaginable that any family would lose a child so young.”
No other vehicle was involved and gardaí have asked any witnesses to contact them at Gurranabraher Garda station.
Meanwhile, a man in his 20s was killed in a single vehicle car crash on the Bog Road, Townspark, near Ardee, Co Louth, in the early hours of the morning.
The man’s body was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
Gardaí in Ardee have appealed for witnesses.
