Heroic Irish women make a stand for those they lost

Huge personal loss and tragedy befell Irish women Elber Twomey, Roseann Brennan, and Una Butler — and each has turned unimaginable horror and heartache into heroic virtue as they launch individual campaigns for safer roads and suicide prevention.

It is little more than a year since Elber Twomey’s family was wiped out by a suicidal motorist. She is going to speak next month at Templemore College about training gardaí to deal with suicidal drivers.

Roseann Brennan’s campaign centres on speed bumps in housing estates after her son was knocked down and killed last May, while Una Butler is raising awareness of suicide after her husband took his own life and the lives of her two little girls in 2010.