Buncrana crash: Final funeral to be held today

The final funeral will be held today after eight people died in Ireland’s worst road traffic accident.

James McEleney, 23, died instantly when the car he was a passenger in crashed into another vehicle in Co Donegal. He was only yards from his home near Clonmany.

Eight people were crammed into the vehicle after the childhood friends watched the World Cup final together on Sunday night.

They hit another car, then collided with a pensioner’s oncoming vehicle, shearing a telegraph pole in two and landing in a ditch.

Hugh Friel, 66, was returning from a successful night’s bingo in Buncrana when he was killed in the accident.

The driver of the other car, Sean Kelly, was left alive and is fighting for his life in hospital.

Hundreds of mourners have already attended two days of funerals for the other seven victims.

Patrick “PJ” McLaughlin, 21, Mark McLaughlin, 21, and Mr Friel were buried on Wednesday after funerals.

Paul Doherty, 19, from Ballyliffin; Ciaran Sweeney, 19, from Ballyliffin; Eamonn McDaid, from Ballymagan, Buncrana, and Damien McLaughlin, 21, from Umricam, Buncrana, were buried yesterday.

Eamonn and Claire Sweeney told mourners at their son Ciaran’s funeral they would welcome critically ill Mr Kelly’s family into their home and that he should not be blamed.

Mr McDaid, 22, was buried in the same St Mary’s Cockhill, Buncrana, graveyard as four of five victims of a road accident in 2005 at nearby Quigley’s Point.

Mourners were led by Eamonn’s devastated parents, Seamus and Martha, brothers Martin, Sean, Liam and James, and his girlfriend Yvonne.

A spanner was placed at the altar reflecting his work as a mechanic and carpenter, along with a number 11 Illies Celtic Football Club jersey and a photo of a smiling Eamonn in a shirt and red tie.