Man killed in Fairview crash on day of grandmother’s funeral

The man killed in a single vehicle collision in Fairview, north Dublin in the early hours of Friday morning, has been named as Patrick Joyce.

Mr Joyce (24) was the grandson of prominent Traveller rights campaigner Nan Joyce, who died in Dublin this week aged 78.

He had travelled from his home in Belfast to Dublin for the funeral on Friday, along with his mother Mag, and 13-year-old brother Richie.

At 1am on Friday a van Mr Joyce was driving hit a railings at Fairview Park, at the junction of Clontarf Road and Malahide Road.

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Sources close to the family said Mag Joyce was in a "critical condition" in the Mater Hospital, but her son Richie's injuries were not as severe. The teenager is receiving treatment in Temple Street Children's Hospital.

Shortly before the collision, a garda patrol car noticed the van being driven erratically and followed the vehicle.

Naomi Doherty (17) granddaughter of Nan, told The Irish Times news of Patrick's death was "very sad for all the family" coming on the day of the funeral.

Gardaí initially reported the man killed in the crash was in his late 40s, however that is understood to be Patrick Joyce (47), father to the deceased, who was not in the crash.

Garda forensic collision investigators examined the scene of the crash on Friday, and the road was closed for several hours.

GSOC

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) has been notified of the incident, and an investigation will be launched.

Under Section 102 of the Garda Síochana Act 2005, GSOC are obliged to examine cases where a fatality occurs, where the deceased had any prior interaction with gardaí beforehand.

A spokeswoman for GSOC said the watchdog was making initial enquiries into the nature of the interaction between the garda patrol car and the van.

One line of enquiry will be to establish if there was any type of pursuit by gardaí of the vehicle, before the collision.

The funeral of Nan Joyce took place at St Francis of Assisi Church, Priorswood, north Dublin at 10am on Friday.

Deirdre Heney, a Fianna Fáil councillor on Dublin City Council for the Clontarf ward said the junction between the Malahide Road and Clontarf Road has had a “number of accidents” in recent years.

“It is a spot that has had tragedy in the past, as it is such a busy junction with three converging pieces of traffic,” she said.

In 2014, Sinéad Maguire (43) was killed in a car crash, metres away from where the van driven by Patrick Joyce collided with a fence.

A passenger in the car, Ms Maguire was killed after the car hit a pole at the same junction. Two other people in the car were injured, and gardaí had been following the car at the time of the single vehicle collision.