Five friends had planned to spend time together on night of crash

Four young lifelong friends killed in a road accident, and their friend who is seriously injured in hospital, had been planning to spend the night together before the fatal accident in Kildare.

The women – three aged 19 and one aged 20 – were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash on a wide, well-maintained stretch of the N78 between Athy and the M9 motorway in Co Kildare.