Mum of tragic Jake pleads with Kenny over speed bumps

Two days ago, Roseann Brennan felt assailed by grief. It’s just six weeks since the death of her six- year-old son, Jake.

But within 24 hours, she had summoned up the strength to meet the Taoiseach to demand an improvement in road safety in the country’s housing estates. “I spend the day fighting images of what happened to Jake, of what he experienced. Earlier in the week, I was sick with high blood pressure, lying in bed. I just kept on expecting his little head to pop around the door. It’s horrible”.

“But then I am overcome by the need to ensure that this doesn’t happen to somebody else and so I pick myself up and get on the phone or go out the door to meet the Taoiseach,” she said. Six-year-old Jake died after being hit by a car while playing outside his home in Lintown Grove on June 12. His parents, together with family, friends and neighbours have begun a campaign to make Ireland’s housing estates safer.