The mother of one of the five teenagers killed in a wrong-way crash on the M9 motorway in Ireland has said "sorry" to the injured victims, describing the incident as a case where "five boys made a bad choice".
Sarah Kennedy spoke at the funeral of her 17-year-old son Jack Kennedy at St Michael's Church in Athy, Co Kildare, on Tuesday morning, August 25. Jack was the last of the five young people killed in the crash to be laid to rest.
Apology to injured family
Jack died alongside Jeremy O'Brien, Kamil Pustkowski, Joe Carthy and Alex McCarthy when the car they were travelling in was driven the wrong way down the M9 and collided head-on with another vehicle. A child and three women from the same family, who were in the other car, are being treated for serious injuries in hospital. The family were on their way to Dublin Airport for a holiday.
Speaking at the funeral, Sarah Kennedy said: "Five young boys made a bad choice. Five young boys paid the ultimate price. Five families lost their babies. Five families got a life sentence. May they all rest in peace."
She added: "Secondly, we all want to send our deepest, heartfelt apologies to the families who were injured. You are all in our thoughts and our prayers. We pray to God that you all make a full recovery and once again, we are sorry."
Canon's warning over criminal activity
In his eulogy, Canon Frank McEvoy referred to anger expressed on social media about the incident. He said: "Words can hurt, and words have the power to heal. It's also true of actions. Our actions can hurt people, and our actions can heal people."
He said the feeling in the parish after the crash was "one of shock, confusion, disbelief, and above all, anger". He warned: "Anger is a very dangerous emotion, and when it starts to curdle and get going in the community, anything can happen."
Addressing Jack's friends, Canon McEvoy said: "If you're considering continuing this criminal activity, will you please stop? Just one word, stop. Because this is the end of it. This is a family broken, and the consequences of that will happen to you too, for you yourself, for your families, the communities in which you live in, and then you'll have the innocent victims, like the people who are in hospital trying to recover. There is no need for it. So again, I say to you, please, please, please, stop."
Funeral tributes and wider context
One of the items brought to the altar was a car to represent Jack's "love for cars". The song Young, Wild & Free by Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa played as the coffin was taken from the chapel for a private cremation. Garda officers were stationed in the town ahead of the funeral mass, with similar scenes at other funerals held for the teens.
The M9 incident came a week before another high-profile wrong-way crash that killed seven people, including two police officers, on the A66 near Middlesbrough. Pc Matthew Blades, 37, and Pc Tom Clough, 38, died when a Passat that had been pursued by police was driven the wrong way along the dual-carriageway and hit their marked armed response vehicle. The five people in the Passat - Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and 23-year-olds Michael Robert Cahill and Jacob Matusiak - were pronounced dead at the scene at South Bank early on Saturday, August 22.
