Joy turned to tragedy: Three die after holiday abroad to celebrate wedding anniversary

A rural community has been plunged into mourning after three women died in a horror three-vehicle road traffic smash as they travelled home from a holiday.

Margaret McGonigle, her daughter Mairead Mundy, and a friend, Racheal Cassidy Battles, died in the incident, while a six-year-old girl and a 31-year-old man were seriously injured.

It emerged last night that one of the fatal victims of the tragedy, which occurred on the N2 near Ardee on the Louth/Monaghan border at around 12.30am yesterday, was returning from a first wedding anniversary celebration of her marriage with her husband.