‘This is not a game, it could end your life’

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has delivered a stark warning to young people engaged in the social media craze of neknomination — “Give it up… it’s not a game. It could end your life.”

Mr Kenny said he was “distraught” to hear the comments of the father of 19-year-old student Jonny Byrne, who died as a result of the craze at the weekend after downing a drink and jumping into the River Barrow in Co Carlow.

His father Joe spoke of how the family had been “destroyed” by his death and pleaded with young people to end craze.