Tributes have been paid following the death of a Cork-born off-duty garda who was killed in a crash in Co Clare on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The incident happened at around 5.30pm on the R466 at Gortnaglogh, Broadford.<\/p>\n
Sergeant Andrew O’Riordan, aged in his 50s, was found dead at the scene.<\/p>\n
The driver of the car, a man also in his 50s, was airlifted to University Hospital Limerick to receive treatment for serious injuries.<\/p>\n
In a statement, garda\u00ed in Limerick paid tribute to the late Garda Sergeant who was stationed at Mayorstone Garda Station.<\/p>\n
“A native of Blarney, Co Cork, Sergeant Andrew O’Riordain was a well-respected member of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na who served proudly for 28 years in the Limerick area,” they said.<\/p>\n
“Our sympathies go out to Andrew\u2019s wife Stephanie and their five children, parents Pat and Kathleen and sister Joanne.<\/p>\n
“Ar dheis D\u00e9 go raibh a anam,” they added.<\/p>\n
TD for the Clare area, Cathal Crowe, expressed his “deepest sympathies to Andrew’s grieving family”.<\/p>\n
“There are no words that can comfort all those who loved Andrew so deeply. Sympathies also to his colleagues who held him in such high esteem,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Andrew – thank you for your incredible service to our local communities. You wore the uniform of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na with immense pride – light of heaven to your soul,” he added.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Lord Mayor of Cork, councillor Damian Boylan described the death of Sgt O’Riordan as \u201can utter tragedy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is heartbreaking for his wife and children, I can\u2019t imagine their suffering and pain,\u201d said Mr Boylan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is such a tragic loss. I offer my deepest sympathies and condolences to them during this time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in councillor for the Cork city North West ward, Kenneth Collins said his thoughts are with the family, friends, and colleagues of Sgt O’Riordan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is very sad news for the family of the garda who was unfortunately killed in a road traffic accident over the weekend,\u201d said Mr Collins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he lived and was stationed in Limerick for 28 years, [but] he was born and bred in Blarney. It’s tragic,” he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart goes out to the family, his friends and his colleagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s desperate. No one deserves to die in a road accident, it\u2019s very, very sad,” Mr Collins added.<\/p>\n
Chairperson of the Blarney & District Chamber of Commerce, Marlene Griffin said the loss of Sgt O’Riordan \u201chits close to home\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cGarda\u00ed are such an important part of our community, and a loss of anybody who has spent their life helping their community is a huge loss,\u201d said Ms Griffin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure I can speak for everybody in the chamber when I say we offer huge condolences to his family and friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very sad, especially when it\u2019s someone from the village \u2013 it hits close to home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just terrible, I don\u2019t think we realise a person\u2019s reach until they’re gone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sgt O’Riordan, survived by his wife Stephanie and children Am\u00e9lie, Steffen, Gabrielle, Jonathan and Axel, will repose in St Peter’s Church in Broadford on Thursday from 5pm to 7pm.<\/p>\n
A funeral Mass will take place on Friday at 12pm and will be followed by his burial at the church grounds.<\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed had earlier appealed to anyone who witnessed the collision to come forward.<\/p>\n
Anyone with information is asked to contact Ennis Garda Station on (065) 684 8100, the garda confidential line on 1800 666 111, or any garda station.<\/p>\n
“Investigations are ongoing,” a garda spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tributes have been paid following the death of a Cork-born off-duty garda who was killed in a crash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-572129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572129","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=572129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}