The funeral of Joe Carthy, 15, one of five teenagers killed in a wrong-way motorway crash in Co Kildare last weekend, took place on Friday morning in Athy, with Irish police maintaining a prominent presence in the town.
Carthy died alongside Jack Kennedy, Alex McCarthy, Jeremy O'Brien and Kamil Pustkowski when the car they were travelling in was driven the wrong way along the M9, resulting in a head-on collision with another vehicle. A child and three women from the same family, who were travelling in the other car, remain in hospital receiving treatment for serious injuries.
Funeral cortege and vigil
The coffin was brought to St Michael the Archangel Church aboard a white horse-drawn carriage. Mourners followed the coffin into the church wearing white T-shirts bearing an image of the young boy, while others held aloft framed photographs. The priest offered his "sincere sympathy to Joe's family", adding: "We gather with sorrow in our hearts."
An Garda Síochána maintained checkpoints on the road into town, with officers also stationed in the vicinity of the church. Outside the service, a screen displayed pictures and videos while music played. Blue carpet led the way to the church steps, with white flowers placed around the entrance.
A funeral mass for Alex is scheduled to take place in Holy Family Church, Askea, Carlow, on Friday afternoon. Elsewhere in Carlow on Friday evening, a vigil will be held for three sisters – Ella Hendricken and Niamh and Alma Kinsella – as well as a young boy who were the occupants of the other vehicle.
Fundraiser and State care
A fundraiser for the affected family had raised more than 640,000 euro by Friday morning. Earlier in the week, Ireland's child and family agency Tusla confirmed one of the deceased teenagers was in its care, while two other boys were "known" to it. Tusla has committed to sharing information with the independent National Review Panel into deaths or serious incidents involving children known to Tusla or in State care.
The tragedy has reignited calls for tougher enforcement of dangerous driving laws, greater regulation of social media content, and improved State care provision for children.
Political and tech response
In the aftermath of the crash, both Government and opposition politicians condemned social media companies for failing to restrict or remove footage depicting dangerous driving. TikTok declined to publicly appear before an Irish parliamentary committee probing online videos with dangerous driving, saying it would not be "possible" to attend given the investigations into the matter, and that it would not be "appropriate" for it to be the sole video-sharing company present. It said it has removed all flagged content and banned accounts violating policies against criminal behaviour.
Meta, which operates Instagram and Facebook, has policies to restrict users under 18 from seeing imagery depicting real-life dangerous driving likely to cause injury, as well as a prohibition of content promoting criminal or harmful activities such as high-risk viral challenges.
Irish Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan pledged to provide An Garda Síochána with "whatever resources they require" to tackle dangerous driving following the crash – including introducing pursuit-specific training for the first time. He stated that Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly would commence rolling out the training programme this year. A decision had been made to instruct gardaí not to pursue the BMW carrying the teenagers as it travelled the wrong way along the motorway. Local gardaí confirmed the vehicle had previously failed to stop when signalled by officers.
O'Callaghan is also considering the introduction of a dedicated criminal offence for those who deliberately drive against the flow of traffic on a motorway. Opposition politicians, however, argue that the difficulties in policing dangerous driving are rooted in recruitment and retention problems within the force. Sinn Féin justice spokesman Matt Carthy said a "failure to address" Garda numbers is "fuelling a community safety crisis" throughout the State. He said: "There is a clear shortage of community gardaí and interventions needed to prevent crime before it occurs."
