Victim of Clonmel road crash to be laid to rest as first funeral is held
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A funeral for one of the victims of a road crash that claimed four young lives in Co Tipperary is under way.
The mass for Nicole Murphy, 18, is taking place at St John the Baptist Church in Kilcash, near Clonmel.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the church as the hearse carrying the teenager’s white coffin arrived just after 12pm.
Classmates formed a guard of honour as the casket was brought into the church.
President of Ireland Michael D Higgins and Education Minister Norma Foley are among those in attendance.
Ms Murphy died along with Zoey Coffey and Grace McSweeney, both also 18, and Ms McSweeney’s 24-year-old brother Luke.
Mr McSweeney was driving the teenagers to a bus on Friday when the car overturned and crashed into a wall in Clonmel.
The youngsters were on their way to celebrate their Leaving Cert exam results, which they had received earlier on Friday.
Around 2,000 people attended a vigil for the four young people in Clonmel on Sunday evening.
A joint funeral for Mr and Ms McSweeney will take place in Clonmel on Friday while Ms Coffey will be laid to rest in the town on Saturday.
Three more lives were lost in another road tragedy in Co Tipperary days after the Clonmel crash.
A young boy and his grandparents died in the single-vehicle collision in Cashel on Tuesday evening.
Thomas O’Reilly, 45, his wife Bridget O’Reilly, 46, and their three-year-old grandson Tom O’Reilly were killed.
The child’s parents, both aged 22, were injured in the crash.
The man is being treated for serious injuries while gardai said the woman had sustained less serious injuries.
The single-vehicle collision occurred shortly before 9pm on Tuesday when a car hit a wall in the Windmill-Knockbulloge area of Cashel.
A vigil for the victims is to be held in St John the Baptist Church in Cashel on Thursday afternoon.
A week of tragedy on Ireland’s roads has also seen two male motorcyclists aged in their 40s killed in separate road crashes on Sunday evening in Dublin and in Belmont, Co Offaly.
On Tuesday morning a man in his 40s died in a single-car crash at Carrowreagh, Co Donegal, while on Wednesday there was another tragedy on the roads when a three-year-old girl was knocked down and killed in a collision in Portlaoise in Co Laois.