The funeral notice for one of the teenagers killed in the M9 motorway crash has been taken down after a flood of angry and abusive comments appeared in its online condolences section.
Joe Carthy, 15, was one of five teenagers killed instantly when the BMW they were travelling in was driven on the wrong side of the M9 motorway in Ireland. The car collided head-on with a Hyundai carrying a family of four, who remain in hospital with serious injuries.
Family injured in crash
The family — three women and a 7-year-old boy — were travelling to Dublin airport to fly to the UK for a wedding, according to Irish police (Gardai) on Tuesday, August 18.
The death notice for Carthy, published on RIP.ie, was removed due to an influx of negative and abusive comments where people expressed anger about the circumstances of the crash, the Irish Mirror reports.
Car purchased days before
The car had been bought five days earlier. Gardai said it was driven in excess of 74mph on the wrong side of the rural motorway. Videos emerged captioned 'last spin boys' reportedly showing the teens driving a BMW on a main road.
The other four teenagers who died — Kamil Pustkowski, 17, from Limerick; Jack Kennedy, 17, from Athy; Jeremy O'Brien, 18, from Carlow; and Alex McCarthy, 17, also from Carlow — have not yet had funeral notices published.
No comment from RIP.ie
The Irish Times reported that RIP.ie, owned by The Irish Times Group, said it did not comment on individual funeral notices. Undertaker Joe Rigney, of Rigney's Funeral Directors, declined to comment on the removal of the notice.
Gardai also confirmed on Tuesday they no longer believed the car had been stolen from Athy. Detectives said it was purchased legitimately by an associate of the teenagers a week earlier for €1,100 (£940).
