Five killed in Co Louth crash were on way to Dundalk to socialiseOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\nOutside the church, people stood in small groups discussing the terrible news.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mood around the parish at the minute, as you can imagine with the tragedy that is after happening, is very, very sad,\u201d said a man who did not want to give his name, standing with two friends at the entrance to the church grounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive young people. We knew three of the lads. It\u2019s shocking, shocking sad. We\u2019re just thinking of the families at this sad time. You just don\u2019t know what to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Mass, people were dumbfounded and shocked at what has happened,\u201d said local Sinn F\u00e9in councillor Michael Gallagher.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s devastating news to the village, and people are shocked and devastated and really words cannot explain. They would be two lads who could be very well known in Drumconrath, two respectable families and two respectable young lads.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family of one of the deceased was involved in the running of the parish and the local school, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally, people are in a state of shock and all of us will pray for the families involved and hope they can get over this terrible tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n
A young woman emerging from Muldoon\u2019s shop said she knew one of the deceased from attending the same primary school, as did a young man who stopped to put air into the tyres of his car.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just shock, shock about the place, devastation,\u201d said the young man. \u201cIt\u2019s really, really sad,\u201d said the young woman. Neither wanted to give their names.<\/p>\n
In Drogheda, a Mass took place in the Augustinan Church on Sunday to mark the United Nations World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.<\/p>\n
Parish priest Fr Colm O\u2019Mahony said the occasion was about not just those who had died or been injured on the roads, but also first responders, doctors, nurses and wider the communities affected by such events.<\/p>\n
He said the gathering was \u201call the more poignant\u201d after the tragedy overnight outside Dundalk. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen this news strikes, when word comes that loved ones have been lost and injured, we can feel like Christ on the cross, broken, damaged, lost, all alone, isolated,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Fr O\u2019Mahony said he had worked as a hospital chaplain and had seen first had the impact of road crashes. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen garda\u00ed in tears, I\u2019ve seen nurses and doctors go to extraordinary effort to maintain and sustain life, and I\u2019ve been there with the family to break the news, to sit with them and to hear who the person was,\u201d he said in his homily. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know the importance of families knowing this person was loved by those who found them, who took them to hospital, that they were loved by doctors and nurses who did best to restore and maintain life and were loved by the chaplain who came to bless them.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe gather and remember and pray, not just for those who have gone before us but those who have survived accidents, and are never the same afterwards, and for all who loved those who were lost.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe all know them all.\u201d Dermot Muldoon was speaking outside Muldoon\u2019s shop and petrol station in the village…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,9689,15949,43],"class_list":["post-143499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-louth","tag-meath","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/MNBT64SCSFB7DGYBD7STLNS7JQ.jpg\")
The five crash victims from left – Chloe McGee (23), Shay Duffy (21), Dylan Commins (23), Alan McCluskey (23) and Chloe Hipson (21). Photo: The Irish Times \/ Montage of handout imagery from An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na <\/p>\n