LAST UPDATE | 31 May 2019

THE SISTER OF former Finance Minister Michael Noonan has been named as one of the three women who died in a two-car collision in Limerick yesterday. 

The women in their 70s were killed in the crash that occurred just outside Loughill village, on the Listowel side, at approximately 6.30pm. 

The driver and sole occupant of one of the cars, named locally as Meabh Bradley, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the second car was Mary Noonan, a sister of former Minister Michael Noonan. The passenger in the front seat of the second car has been named as Mary Costello. 

Both women were also pronounced dead at the scene.

The third occupant, Mary Griffin, has been taken to University Hospital Limerick with serious but non-life threatening injuries.

It is believed that some of the women who were killed were travelling to Listowel Writers’ Week in Kerry. 

“We are desperately sad to learn that those killed in yesterday’s car crash at Loughill we’re travelling to our Festival. Our sincerest sympathy to their families in this awful sad time,” festival organisers said in a statement. 

Local Fine Gael Councillor Jerome Scanlan told TheJournal.ie that everyone is in a state of shock after last night’s “terrible tragedy”.

“The people of Loughill are traumatised. But it’s a fantastic community that will help the families through the grieving process.” 

“An unreal scene”

Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, Father Tom Crawford said there were “two cars smashed by the side of the road” when he came upon the scene. 

“Well it had happened, everything had happened, but what was happening when I arrived was fire brigade, gardaí were there, some people on the side of the road. It was just like an unreal scene,” he said.

I just did what we normally, and all we can, do in those kind of scenes is to pray over them as well as I could. 

“I don’t know anything about what happened except that it seemed to have been a terrible accident,” he said. 

Crawford said that coming upon a scene like the crash leaves you “speechless, you’re helpless, you’re looking for something that you can do”.

“And all you can do is standby and let the people who know what to do, like the emergency services. And they were very busy trying to rescue the one who was alive,” he said. 

He said he was shocked by what he saw.

It does shock you. You wake up thinking life will go on like it did yesterday, but life is so fragile, you never know from moment to moment. 

Gardaí are appealing for anyone with information in relation to this collision or anyone who may have dash-cam footage to contact Newcastle West Garda Station on 069 20650, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.

With reporting from Adam Daly