{"id":88192,"date":"2025-10-18T06:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T06:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/88192\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T06:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T06:28:08","slug":"dublin-man-on-j1-visa-in-texas-dies-following-road-incident-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/88192\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin man on J1 visa in Texas dies following road incident \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\/\">Dublin<\/a> man who was working in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/texas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/texas\">Texas<\/a> while on a J1 visa has died following a road incident last Friday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">John Kirby, who was in his early 20s, is understood to have been knocked down by a truck in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Mr Kirby was a business and marketing graduate. He suffered serious head injuries and was brought to a nearby hospital after the incident but died last Wednesday. The south county Dublin native had been in Texas with three <a href=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"\">Blackrock College<\/a> schoolfriends.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Blackrock College Rugby Football Club (RFC) paid tribute in a social media post.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said they are \u201caware of the case and are providing consular assistance.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">The director of Blackrock College RFC, Michael Hearty added his condolences saying it is with \u201cdeep sadness\u201d that he shared the news of the passing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Hearty said that Mr Kirby was a \u201cmuch-loved member\u201d of the Blackrock College RFC family, and his loss has been felt \u201cprofoundly\u201d across the club and all teams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He continued: \u201cI first met John in the summer of 2019 during preseason training. Immediately I was drawn to his infectious personality and big smile. He was charismatic, witty and very popular.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"John Kirby. Photograph: Blackrock College RFC\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/7J475QXOCVFXVCERHLWHS4J7KU.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"600\"\/>John Kirby. Photograph: Blackrock College RFC <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cFrom the moment he pulled on the Rock jersey, he embodied everything our club stands for, commitment, friendship, and heart. He was a talented player, a dedicated team-mate, and above all, a guy who brought joy to everyone around him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The director explained that Mr Kirby had that \u201cspecial kind of presence\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cA big, infectious smile and a quick sense of humour that could lift the whole dressingroom. Whether it was during training on a horrible wet Tuesday night or over a pint in the clubhouse, he had a way of making people laugh and feel included. He was the sort of team-mate you were always happy to see walk through the door,\u201d Mr Hearty noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cHis kindness, and sense of fun left a mark on everyone who knew him. The word no, wasn\u2019t in his vocabulary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">His funeral arrangements are yet to be announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Dublin man who was working in Texas while on a J1 visa has died following a road&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[56297,1844,615,61,60,43,9904,115],"class_list":["post-88192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-blackrock-college","tag-department-of-foreign-affairs","tag-dublin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-texas","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88192","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=88192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}