A TEENAGE BOY injured in the Carrickmines fire tragedy at the weekend has been released from hospital.
Francis O’Rourke of the Southside Traveller Action Group said 14-year-old John Connors was released yesterday.
A four-year-old boy, Tom Connors, who lost his parents and three of his siblings in the fire, remains in hospital. O’Rourke said Tom’s brother Michael (5) was unharmed as he was not sleeping in the same cabin.
Ten people died in the fire, which happened at a halting site on the Glenamuck Road in Carrickmines at about 4am on Saturday.
O’Rourke said that no funeral arrangements can be made until the bodies of the victims are formally identified.
She said the victims’ relatives are “still in shock” and “just coping”. Counselling has been made available to them.
The victims have been named as Thomas and Sylvia Connors, their children Jim, Christy and Mary (who was just six-months-old), William Lynch, his partner Tara Gilbert, their children Jody and Kelsey, and William’s brother Jimmy.
The people of nearby Ballyogan held a candlelit vigil for the victims last night.
Expressions of sympathy are expected to be read in the Dáil this afternoon.
Safety on halting sites
The Department of the Environment has confirmed it will be contacting local authorities and “asking them to visit halting sites and carry out risk assessments” so they can “advise on any fire safety issues found”.
Brigid Quilligan, Director of the Irish Traveller Movement, said there are many fire safety issues on halting cites – particularly in relation to overcrowding.
She told Morning Ireland she would prefer if an independent audit was carried out, rather than one led by the department.
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