A 25 YEAR OLD woman was killed and her four year old daughter seriously injured when a chair on a funfair ride snapped from its moorings in Borrisokane, Co Tipperary, yesterday evening.
Ms Marese Egan was said to be enjoying the chair oplane ride with her young daughter, Samantha, when it apparently became detached from its moorings, local reports said. A Garda spokesman said the support bar holding the chair broke and the chair, with its two passengers, was thrown clear of the chairo plane.
The chief fire officer for north Tipperary, Mr Karl Cashin, said early this morning that travelling funfairs did not operate under licence from either the fire authorities or county councils. The fire service had "no function" as regards safety at such events, he said. "We certainly don't carry out any inspections or tests," he said.
A Garda source in the town said as far as he knew, the monitoring of safety at funfairs was not a matter for the Garda, but for the Health and Safety Authority. Efforts to contact the organisers of the funfair, believed to be a locally based concern, were unsuccessful last night.
Hundreds of people were in the north Tipperary town for the annual "Welcome Home" festival which had been running since Friday. The accident occurred at about 6.30 p.m. and was witnessed by a number of people. The organisers of the festival cancelled the remainder of the programme, which was due to run until this. evening.
Ms Egan lived about five miles outside the town. She was pronounced dead at the scene and was taken with her daughter to Nenagh General Hospital. Samantha was later described as "very ill but stable" at the hospital.
The parish priest of Borrisokane, Canon James Madden, said people in the town were devastated by the death. He said a "pall of gloom" descended on the town as news spread of the accident.
He went to administer the Last Rites to Ms Egan at about 7 p.m. and found "people standing around in a state of shock and disbelief", he said. Some members of her family were at the scene. What had been a carefree, joyful occasion was suddenly turned into sadness and despair and people were "struck dumb" by the tragedy.
"It was a lovely summer's day and everyone was so happy and enjoying themselves. It was a day for the children - there was a fancy dress and then the kids were brought up to enjoy the swings and the roundabouts. I'm sure they were very frightened [when the accident happened]."
Canon Madden said people in the town would long remember the tragedy. "It would be hard to imagine people coming to a carnival in Borrisokane after this."
He did not know who the organisers of the funfair were. "I looked around to see if there was any name on the vans, but I couldn't see any."
A priest at the presbytery in Nenagh, Father Tony Casey, said he was "very shocked" at the news of the incident.