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Burt mourns "larger than life"
pals
04.05.09
by Linda McGrory
AN Inishowen village has been "torn apart" following
the deaths of two young GAA players in an horrific
road accident in the early hours of yesterday.
The victims were named locally last night as
life-long pals Gary McLaughlin, aged 21, from
Ballymoney, Burt and Darren Downey, aged 19, from
Moness, Burt. The two were killed in a single
vehicle crash at Newtowncunningham on the main
Letterkenny to Derry Road.
Gardai are trying to piece together the men's last
movements after their crashed car was spotted by an
early-morning motorist in the laneway of an
unoccupied house shortly before 7.30am.
It is not known exactly when the crash happened but
it's understood the men were last seen alive by
friends between 6am and 6.30am. Gary McLaughlin had
earlier attended a 50th birthday party for his
father, Eunan, a local taxi driver. Burt GAA club
secretary Damian Dowds last night extended the
club's sympathies to the families of the victims,
who played both hurling and football with the club. |
“Gary and Darren were
very dedicated players. They played football and
hurling all their lives, and over the past couple of
years were breaking into our senior teams.
“They would never let the team down, never missed a
game and could always be counted on to attend
training. And Darren wouldn’t have been shy in
speaking out and |
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telling other players
to up their effort," said Mr Dowds.
He described the deceased friends as "larger than
life characters" who were "always buzzing about and
having a laugh with their friends".
“Both men played reserve football for the club last
weekend. Club members were stunned when they learned
of their deaths. It is almost beyond belief that
Gary or Darren won’t be lining out with us again,"
added Mr Dowds.
All club fixtures have been cancelled until further
notice while a big social event planned for last
night to crown 'The Grianan Queen' for the upcoming
National Sheep Shearing Championships in Burt, was
postponed as a mark of respect.
The village of Burt, located in the south of the
peninsula, is no stranger to tragedy. The community
only recently marked the second anniversary of the
deaths of the Dunne family in Monageer, Co Wexford.
Yesterday’s was the second fatal accident in
Inishowen in a fortnight. It has also emerged that
one of Darren's grandfather's was killed in a road
traffic accident in the 1970s.
Garda Inspector David Murphy of Letterkenny Garda
Station said initial investigations suggested the
car, a silver Opel Astra, was travelling towards
Letterkenny when the latest accident occurred. “The
car left the road on a gradual sweeping bend to the
right and appears to have struck a pillar and gone
through the gateway of an unoccupied house, ending
up in the laneway,” said Inspector Murphy, who added
that road conditions were damp from overnight rain,
at the time. Both men were pronounced dead at the
scene by a doctor. Inspector Murphy, meanwhile,
appealed for witnesses who may have travelled that
section of the N13 in the early hours of Sunday and
who may have vital clues as to the time and cause of
the accident. A local councillor and friend of both
families, Francis Conaghan said there had been many
calls for improvements to this exact section of the
N13 - the scene of a series of fatal crashes over
the years.
“There is no question but that stretch of road is
dangerous. There are a series of bends with two
particular bad ones which require traffic to slow
down,” said Cllr Conaghan. He offered his sympathies
to Gary McLaughlin’s parents Eunan and Evelyn
McLaughlin and his two sisters and Darren Downey’s
parents Jackie and Paul, a member of the defence
forces, one brother and four sisters. |
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