Ireland has been rocked by the tragedy which took place on the Mayo-Galway border on Tuesday night.
It was not in the dead of night when so many road fatalities take place. It was when many people were cosying up in front of the fire, after a hard day at work, looking forward to watching their favourite soaps, and glad they didn’t have to venture out in the awful wind and rain that swept across the west of Ireland.
These four young students were returning from a happy shopping trip in Sligo. Memories were made, laughs had, as they prepared for Christmas and probably purchased a new outfit for Christmas or some pressies for family.
They never dreamed that this would be their last day on earth. Who would have? The injustice of it all is too hard to take in.
Four lives were lost. Four families devastated. Hundreds affected.
People across every social divide, age, gender have been shaken to their core.
Four girls, in the prime of their life, everything to live for, work for, play for.
Darkness has set on their young lives. As the country gets back to work and the horror of their deaths slowly but not intentionally begins to fade, their families and friends will never recover from the devastation. They will join the statistics. But the statistics do not depict the destruction and immense pain and grief their passing has brought.
One girl remains critically ill. The country is praying for her now. A man set out on a journey that day too and did not envisage that he would be entangled in such a tragedy. He too is hurting both physically and emotionally. Our prayers should remember him too.
A university has been shaken. Thousands of students, from those who have just entered adulthood to the lecturers who impart life’s knowledge to their charges, are reeling from the tragic outcome of this awful night’s carnage.
Four ordinary, happy-go-lucky, girls, ladies, women. Not a care in the world. That’s how it should be when you’re 19, 20, 21. The mind full of new knowledge. New friendships formed but now broken. But never forgotten.
How will their families ever move on? How will they cope? How will they recover? They probably won’t. It will take months, years, for them to make peace with what has happened. You couldn’t blame them if they never made peace with God or whoever they look to for spiritual guidance.
Siblings stunned, traumatised, their immense grief felt physically as their hearts are wrenched from their chests. Christmas presents bought for their beautiful sister now have no place. Plans to pass the long and lazy Christmas holidays in tatters.
Boyfriends wondering how could life have been so cruel. Will they ever find someone as special again? Guilty feelings when they do.
A circle of friendship broken. The missing link can never be replaced or forgotten. Each year on birthdays and anniversaries of this awful tragedy those closest will remember, celebrate what they had, visit graves, bring flowers, write messages.
Awful, tragic, sad, unnecessary, senseless. Where to from now? We must listen to the gardaí, the road safety experts. Take their advice. Slow down, belt up, stop this devastation from happening again. It won’t bring them back though.
Toni Bourke Editor [email protected]
