Donegal car tragedy: Four lives lost

In a society that imagines itself civilised it is necessary to express great sympathy with the families of the four young men who died in a car crash in Donegal over the weekend.

That grief will resonate throughout West Donegal — and far wider too — as the deaths of four young men with, as that cutting cliche goes, their lives ahead of them is particularly cruel. Every road death is a tragedy but when four lives are lost in one incident it seems especially tragic.

It is difficult to clutch at straws, to see the silver lining in the clouds at a moment as dark as this but the Donegal crash settles a debate provoked by events following a fatal crash in Dublin last week. That event was filmed and posted on social media by passersby devoid of empathy. Had that intrusion recurred in Donegal the outcry would be such that even those voyeurs would have to change.

It maybe time to legislate to try to curb such callous behaviour, which is another consequence of the Wild West free-for-all we call social media

That the only car involved was almost as old as the victims, all in their early 20s, may raise questions too.