Funerals of Tipperary crash victims held

Three teenagers killed in a New Year’s Eve car crash in Co Tipperary were buried today.

The funerals of Stuart Donnellan (14), Pádraig Bourke (16), and Adrian O'Brien (17), were held separately in three parishes across north Tipperary.

The youths died on Wednesday evening when a car they were travelling in careered off the road and smashed into a tree. 

Two other teenagers were travelling in the car when it went out of control and hit a tree at Kilboy on the Nenagh to Dolla road at 7.30pm. Thomas Clarke (16), and Kelsey Tiernan (15) remain in stable conditions in the Mid-Western General Hospital in Limerick.

Stuart Donnellan's funeral was held at St Mary's of the Rosary Church in Nenagh at 11am. Chief celebrant Fr Anthony McMahon told a packed congregation that no words could begin to convey the shock and sadness in the community at Stuart's death. 

He said it was every parent's worst nightmare. 

"I would like to say to all the young people here to look out for one another, to be there for one another," he said. 

He offered his condolences to Stuart's mother Martina, his father Stuart and his siblings. Stuart was buried at Ballinree graveyard in Nenagh. 

A service for Adrian was held at Youghalarra Church, Newtown, at noon.

Pádraig, the youngest of nine children,was buried following funeral mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Silvermines. More than two thousand people attended the funeral. 

Parish priest Fr Brendan Moloney offered his condolences to Pádraig's father Seamus, his mother Joan and to each of his eight siblings. 

"Pádraig was the baby of the family, he was much loved. I hope his legacy would be to remind people to take care of life and to remember it is a gift," he said. 

He encouraged young people to look out for one another in the coming days and to make sure no-one was lonely.

Meanwhile, crash investigators are continuing to look into the circumstances of the crash.
A team of gardaí carried out a detailed analysis at the site of the crash and the surrounding area, and postmortems were carried out on the three victims.

The 13-year-old Opel Astra was removed from the scene and forensically examined. Gardaí said yesterday that they had not yet spoken to the two survivors and did not expect to be officially questioning them about the crash until next week.

A Garda spokesman said there was still an element of confusion around the legal ownership of the car and whether or not it was taxed, insured or had passed an NCT at the time of the crash. Inquiries were ongoing, he said.

It is understood the car was purchased locally in the last few weeks for cash in the region of €200.