Two men arrested in connection with fatal Monaghan debs crash released

A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions by gardaí investigating the fatal crash that killed teenagers Dlava Mohamed (16) and Kiea McCann (17) at Legnakelly, outside Clones, Co Monaghan, in July.

Two men, aged in their 60s and 40s, were arrested on Friday morning as part of the Garda investigation into the crash.

Both men were questioned at a Garda station in Co Monaghan before being released on Friday evening. “A file will now be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions,” a Garda spokesman said.

Ms Mohamed and Ms McCann, two friends who attended Largy College in Clones, were travelling to their Debs ball at the Westenra Arms Hotel in Monaghan Town on July 31st when the car they were travelling in left the road at Legnakelly, on the N54, and crashed into a tree.

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Three others were injured in the crash: Auin Mohamed (18), Ms Mohamed’s sister; Oisín Clerkin (18); and the driver, Anthony McGinn.

Clones was plunged into a state of grief over the summer following the crash: on two consecutive nights, the people of the Co Monaghan town lined the streets to pay their respect as the bodies of the young victims arrived home in hearses.

At a funeral service for Ms McCann, Fr John Chester told assembled mourners how the two teenagers were found touching hands at the crash scene. Ms McCann’s father, Frankie, performed CPR, to no avail. “No father should have to witness such a terrible scene,” the priest said.

Tributes paid over the summer described Ms McCann as “kind, wholehearted, genuine”, while Ms Mohamed – who had arrived in Ireland from Syria as part of a resettlement programme some years previous – was someone who “had a warm smile, a gentle hello”.

Ms McCann had plans to work in childcare. Ms Mohamed had finished her Junior Certificate in the weeks before the crash, and was heading into her transition year.

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