Further agony for Australia crash families

THE trauma of the bereaved families of the two young Meath people killed in a horrific car crash in Australia last week has been intensified by delays in bringing home the remains of their loved ones for burial.

The grieving families of Colm Reilly and Kiara Duncan were still waiting to hear when they could bring their loved ones home as we went to press yesterday (Tuesday).

The neighbouring parishes of Slane and Beauparc were in shock and mourning this week as they awaited the return of the two young people tragically cut down in their prime while on the trip of a lifetime to Australia.

The area had been plunged into grief on Wednesday with the news that 20 year-old Colm Reilly from Abbeyview, Slane, who was coming to the end of his year in Australia, had been killed instantly in the crash near where he was living in Perth, Western Australia.

Then, on Sunday, Kiara Duncan from School Road, Kentstown, who had been critically injured in the smash and who was on a life support machine at the Royal Perth Hospital, lost her battle for life with her parents, Audrey and James, at her bedside.

Two of their friends, who were also from Meath, Roisin Smyth (19) from Navan and Eamonn Driver of Stanley Heights, Slane, were injured in the accident, but their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. Three others who were in the same car were also injured.

The accident occurred shortly after 11pm (Australian time) on Wednesday when the Toyota Corolla in which they were travelling collided with a car driven by a 63 year-old woman. It is believed they were on the street where they lived when the accident occurred.

This week, an aunt of Kiara Duncan, Sharon Brady, said that Kiara's parents, Audrey and James, had been with her when she passed away. She said they had agreed to donate Kiara's organs for transplant.

She said that funeral arrangements could not yet be made because the Australian authorities wanted a post-mortem and disease-free certificates before the remains could be repatriated to Ireland.

Very Rev Joe Deegan, PP, Slane, said this week that the tragedy was all the more difficult because it had happened so far away and because of the uncertainty of when the remains of the two young victims would return to Meath.

He said that the people of Slane had been shocked and devastated by the tragedy. Colm Reilly had been due home soon to celebrate his 21st birthday but all that joy had now turned to sorrow and tragedy.

He said he knew the Reilly family very well. "They are a lovely family, a quiet family and this is a terrible tragedy for them, made even more difficult by the fact it happened so far away," he said. Fr Deegan said their neighbours in Slane had been rallying round to support them as best they could.

Very Rev Peter Farrelly, PP, Beauparc, said that the parish had been in "an awful state" when the news of the tragedy came through.

He recalled that Kiara had been an altar server in Kentstown Church and had been confirmed in Yellow Furze in the Jubilee Year. "She was a very popular and intelligent youngster and will be remembered for her big laugh," he said.

Colm Reilly is a son of Seamus and Mary Reilly and is also survived by his brothers, Derek and James, and sisters, Aoife and Tomáisína.

A past pupil of St Patrick's Classical School, Navan, and St Oliver's School in Drogheda, he had been in Australia since April and was due to come home in the next two months. He was a member of the Slane Wanderers soccer team and a keen Mancheter United fan.

He had completed a scaffolding course and was intending to set himself up as a builder. While he was in Australia, he had spent some time working as a gold miner.

Kiara Duncan was a past pupil of Kentstown National School and St Joseph's Mercy Convent in Navan and qualified as a beauty therapist earlier this year before deciding to travel to Australia for a year.

She was a member of the award-winning Kentstown and Seneschalstown Accordian Band and was a former member of the Meath Olympic Handball team.

Mary Mulligan, deputy principal of St Joseph's Secondary School, recalled that Kiara sat her Leaving Certificate exams in June 2005, having spent the previous five years at the school.

"She is remembered as being friendly, cheerful and fun-loving. She was popular and well-liked by her teachers and fellow students and was an intelligent and determined student. Kiara was always willing and happy to help others. She had many interests, including music and she participated in music activities here in school. The school is shocked and saddened at her death and offers its sincerest condolences to her mother, Audrey, her family and her friends," she said.

The trauma for Kiara's family was intensified on Saturday when someone callously hacked into her Bebo site and reported her death prematurely.