Two teenagers were killed in separate road collisions in counties Sligo and Meath yesterday.
A 16-year-old girl was killed in the early hours of yesterday morning when the car in which she was a passenger struck a pole on a bend on its own side of the road at Ragwood, Gurteen, Co Sligo.
Leaving Certificate student Sheila McCann was on her way to a friend's house after a birthday party at Kane's Hill Hotel in Gurteen.
The car was less than a mile along the road from the hotel when the crash happened at about 3.20am.
Four teenage boys were also in the car at the time. Two of the boys are understood to have suffered injuries including a skull fracture and a pelvis fracture.
Members of the girl's family were also at the party, although they are not believed to have been in the car.
Parish priest Monsignor John Doherty, who delivered the last rites at the scene, said that when he arrived Sheila's parents were already there.
"They were devastated. It's so very sad, so very tragic," he said.
Sheila, third-eldest in a family of nine, was a pupil at St Attracta's Community School, close to her home in Tubbercurry.
Local Fianna Fáil county councillor Jerry Lundy expressed sympathy to the family.
"They are a highly-respected family, very well liked in the community . . . The community is in total shock. It's the kind of thing you read about happening elsewhere, not in your own little place."
A second teenager was killed in Co Meath yesterday.
The young man in his late teens was walking on the N3 at Powerlough, Dunshaughlin, at about 12.30am when he was struck by a car.
He was taken to Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown, Dublin, where he was pronounced dead at 1.30am.
No one else was injured in the collision and gardaí at Dunshaughlin are investigating the incident.