{"id":526309,"date":"2026-06-30T19:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/526309\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T19:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:02:09","slug":"family-fly-to-spain-to-support-mullingar-man-who-was-sole-survivor-of-horror-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/526309\/","title":{"rendered":"Family fly to Spain to support Mullingar man who was sole survivor of horror crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The family of the sole survivor of a horror holiday crash in Spain has flown to Malaga to be by his side in hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Ian McCullagh, who is aged in his 30s, is in a critical condition in Carlos Haya Hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">His wife, Amy McCullagh, his brother, Mark McCullagh and Mark\u2019s partner Michaela Newcombe <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/arid-41870685.html\">were all killed when the rented Mercedes they were travelling in lost control<\/a>, smashed through the A\u20117 motorway\u2019s crash barrier and plunged some 100ft down a ravine after 2.30am on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ian is believed to have been driving the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The brothers and their partners left for Spain on a holiday together late last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Amy and Ian McCullagh married in Benalmadena, Malaga, Spain, in 2024. They have young children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A minute\u2019s silence was held for the couples at a Westmeath County Council meeting on Monday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A moving tribute was paid to Michaela by the beauty salon in Mullingar where she worked as a receptionist. She was described as the \u201cthe face and the heart of our salon&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWe hoped there had been a mistake. We clung to the hope that the terrible news wasn&#8217;t true. But today, with broken hearts, we say goodbye to our beautiful Michaela,\u201d the tribute by Havana Sun salon said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI only wish you knew how special you were to so many of us. Our salon will never be the same, and we won&#8217;t even try to pretend it will be.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Local councillor Michael Dollard said that the four young people are from Mullingar town and that their families are well-known and respected locally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThis is very sad news. It has generated a lot of gloom in Mullingar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt\u2019s a huge shock. This tragic accident happened while they were on holidays and their young lives were suddenly cut short.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt shows how fragile life is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u00a0The McCullagh boys are descended from boxing legend Maxie McCullagh, Mr Dollard said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Michael \u2018Maxie\u2019 McCullagh competed for Ireland at the 1948 London Olympics in the men\u2019s lightweight competition, reaching the quarter\u2011finals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A year later, he made history when he became the first Irish boxer to win a European title outside Ireland, winning the European lightweight championship in Oslo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A spokesperson for Andalucia\u2019s regional emergency co-ordination centre confirmed the collision, which happened at around 2.38am on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The crash saw one vehicle plunge around 30 metres down a ravine while travelling to Almeria near the Cerrado de Calder\u00f3n exit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Emergency services were deployed to the incident, and Civil Guard officers and firefighters helped free those trapped.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Department of Foreign Affairs said that it is currently supporting those involved. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of the sole survivor of a horror holiday crash in Spain has flown to Malaga to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,11318],"class_list":["post-526309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-road-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526309","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=526309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}