GARDAI have asked witnesses to an accident in which a six-week-old baby boy died to contact them. The baby, Michael Connolly, was a passenger in his grandmother's car when it was in a collision with another car at Mullabohy on the road from Dundalk to Carrickmacross on Monday night.
The other passenger in the same car was the infant's pregnant aunt. On her admission to the Louth County Hospital doctors performed an emergency Caesarean section. Her newborn son was immediately transferred to the special care unit in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda where a spokeswoman said: "He is doing very well and is comfortable".
Yesterday family members were comforting the dead child's parents, Ms Yvonne Connolly and her partner, Mr Alan Scott. Ms Connolly was in the Louth hospital receiving treatment for a gall bladder complaint when the accident occurred.
Her mother, Ms Mary Connolly, had been taking the baby and her other daughter, 19-year-old Debbie, home after visiting Yvonne when the accident happened.
"The nurses came in and said that my mother wanted to talk to me. She told me my baby was dead. I couldn't believe it. It is still just a dream," Ms Connolly said. Another member of her family called to the house she shares with Mr Scott in Dundalk and informed him. "It is hitting me one minute and I am all right the next. It hasn't hit me fully."
Ms Connolly said she had been shocked when she first found out she was pregnant "but I grew to love it. I couldn't wait for it to happen. It meant sleepless nights but they were worth it".
Her other child, four-year-old Anthony, told her: "The baby has gone to the angels". Ms Connolly discharged herself from the hospital after hearing about the crash.
There were six people in the other vehicle involved in the crash. Three of them were said to be in a serious condition in the Louth hospital; the other three were released after treatment. Gardai say the stretch of road where the accident occurred has a number of bad bends although it is not one of the county's more notorious accident blackspots. Garda inquiries into the cause of the accident are continuing.