‘When I go home . . . I stare at two empty chairs where they should be’

A man who lost his wife and daughter when they drowned after their car was flipped into a flooded ditch in a road traffic collision recalled how he listened at their funeral to Bob Dylan's Blowing in the Wind and thought how it reflected the tragedy of deaths on Irish roads.

In his victim impact statement Noel Clancy, a farmer from near Fermoy, told Cork Circuit Criminal Court he was in a daze at the funeral Mass for his wife Geraldine and daughter Louise after they were killed in a car crash on December 22nd last.

The choir sang the Dylan anthem which was a favourite of Louise’s. “I could see Louise singing and playing her guitar – the words might well be the story of road collisions in Ireland. ‘How many deaths will it take to know that too many people have died – the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind’”.

The court heard how Mr Clancy was among local people who tried to help at the scene of the collision, without him realising it was his wife’s car and that she and their daughter were inside it.

“When the firemen pulled them from the car, I did not recognise them. They were blue and purple from the cold water. It was only after I read the number plate of the car that I knew it was Geraldine and Louise,” he said.

Mr Clancy told how he and his other children, Fiona and Declan, had gone into the funeral home in Fermoy for a rosary the day after the fatal collision.

“When we went in and saw the coffins side by side, my heart broke. I pushed the coffins apart and knelt between them and put my left hand on Geraldine’s clasped hands and my right hand on Louise’s and cried for my wife and daughter.”

Mr Clancy spoke about how Louise had overcome her struggles with autism to study English and Sociology at UCC and she was hoping to become a journalist. She had just returned home for Christmas from her Erasmus year at the University of Sussex when the crash happened.

He recalled how on Christmas Day, three days after they were killed, the undertaker asked him a question about the funeral which he hoped he would never have to ask any other family ever again.

“He asked me ‘Which coffin will we lower first?’ While most people were enjoying Christmas with their families, I was trying to make a decision. I phoned him back and told him that we would lower Geraldine first and place Louise back in her arms.”

Cut short

Fiona Clancy spoke about how close she was to her younger sister and how her sister’s life had been cut short and she would never get to graduate from university or achieve her goal of working as a journalist or travel the world as she had dreamed of doing.

“She will never get engaged or married or be a mother. She will never get to celebrate another birthday or Christmas or family occasion or spend time with her many dear friends. She will never smile, laugh or breathe again. Instead she will spend the rest of eternity in her grave, aged just 22.

“The weekends when I get home now are so strange . . . Our home will never feel the same again. Instead I go to their grave on these weekends. It is still beyond surreal to see their names and a date of death on their headstone. I cannot believe it.

“On Christmas Day, we opened the presents they had gotten each other in the funeral home and decided what gifts to have buried with them . . . after the funeral Mass, I kissed both coffins for the last time as the church bell tolled. This moment will haunt me forever.”

Declan Clancy described how the grief is all consuming, like a tidal wave crashing over him until he is left paralysed to the spot as he struggles at work to come to terms with the loss.

“And now when I go home, I’m struck by a deafening silence. No longer am I greeted excitedly by Louise telling me about her latest adventure in college or by a loving hug from my Mam. Instead as I sit the kitchen table, I stare across at two empty chairs when they should be.

“The thought of my mother and sister screaming for their lives, knowing that they were going to drown tortures me every night. The nightmares leave me physically exhausted. I hear their screams, I see them die again and again.”

Speaking outside the court after yesterday’s proceedings, Noel Clancy said the Government needed to introduce new legislation to make a car owner equally culpable if a family member on a learner permit drove the vehicle while unaccompanied.

He said the Government and Irish society needed to reflect on the number of young learner drivers who drove cars unaccompanied in contravention of the law.

“I think it is important to reflect on the question on any given day how many learner drivers are on the roads of Ireland unaccompanied and how many parents or family members allow their cars to be driven by these drivers.

“I am calling on the Minister for Transport to implement legislation so that allowing one’s car to be driven by an unaccompanied learner driver is an offence and would make the car owner and driver equally accountable in law.”