Driver jailed after teenage passenger dies in crash

A teenager drowned when the speeding, overcrowded car in which he had been a front-seat passenger lost control and ended up in a waterlogged drain.

Thomas McDonagh was 19 years old when he lost his life in a single-vehicle incident near Kylemore, Connemara, in the early hours of February 2 last year.

Brian McDonagh, aged 24, from Toombeola, Roundstone, Connemara, had initially denied a charge of dangerous driving, causing the death of Thomas McDonagh, but changed his plea to guilty moments before his trial was due to begin at Galway Circuit Criminal Court last March.