Priest makes damning comment at funeral of Irish teen killed in car driving down wrong side of motorway
The priest at the funeral for one of the five boys killed in a head-on collision on an Irish motorway told mourners the group were 'wrong' for their actions.
Jeremy O’Brien was one of the five teenagers killed when a BMW he and his friends were travelling in collided with another car in the early hours of 16 August.
The group had been travelling the wrong way down Ireland's M9 motorway, near Moone in Co Kildare, when they collided with a car carrying sisters Niamh and Alma Kinsella, and Ella Hendricken, and Alma's seven-year-old son, Yemi. The sisters had been travelling to Dublin Airport to attend a wedding in the UK.
According to a report from The Irish Times, O’Brien was the fourth of his friends to be laid to rest yesterday, with hundreds of family members and friends turning up for the service.
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During his sermon, the priest acknowledged the complex nature of the tragedy, telling mourners: "While today we acknowledge that what the boys did was wrong, we must not allow tragedy to become the only story, as we pray for those who were injured and who have died."
He also paid tribute not only to the five teenagers killed in the crash, but also to the injured sisters, saying: "Several lives have been lost, and others have been seriously injured. Families have been changed forever. There are people in hospital fighting to recover, and there are families who are beginning the painful journey of learning to live with an empty place at their table."
Members of O'Brien's family also shared prayers 'for all those affected by the accident'.
The comments follow an apology from O'Brien's mother Margaret Berry, who told The Sun the crash was a 'tragedy' which 'should have never happened'.
"My heart goes out to this poor family and if I could see them I would apologise. I have said prayers for them and I hope to God that they can heal," she said.
"This tragedy should never have happened. I am not proud of what happened and I don’t condone what they did. I wish my son had never got into that car," she continued.
"I also hope one day that the family who remain in hospital can find some kind of forgiveness some day. I will continue to pray for them."
O’Brien was killed alongside his cousin Alex McCarthy, 16, as well as Jack Kennedy, 17, Joe Carthy, 15, and Kamil Pustkowski, 17, when their car collided with the sisters' vehicle.
Pustkowski's mother has also spoken out since the fatal crash, telling Irish Mail that she'd previously asked a judge to jail her son over previous car offences.
"I said to that judge, 'I can’t keep him at home'," she told the outlet.
"That’s the thing. For two years I’m living as a prisoner because I have locked everything.
"Nobody listened to me. Do you believe I wanted my child in the prison? But if you see what’s going on, you have to find different solutions.
"At least, if he was in the prison, maybe he will have time to mature. Probably then someone else would have been sitting in the car.
"That’s not any better. But at least that wouldn’t be Kamil."
Topics: World News
Brenna Cooper