Another tragic weekend on State's roads leaves 8 dead

Wreckage of the two cars involved in yesterday's crash on the road between Quigleys Point and Carndonagh

Wreckage of the two cars involved in yesterday's crash on the road between Quigleys Point and Carndonagh

Eight people have been killed so far this weekend on Irish roads. The deaths bring the total so far this year 301.

Prayers were said at masses across Donegal this morning for the families of five young people killed in a two-car collision in Inishowen yesterday.

The three men and two women, all aged in their twenties, were killed instantly when car they were travelling in collided with an oncoming vehicle on the road between Quigleys Point and Carndonagh.

The five are understood to have just spent the night in the Bailey's Nightclub in nearby Redcastle.

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The driver of the other car is still in a serious condition in Altnagelvin hospital in Derry.

Last night gardai named the victims as David Steele (23) from Trees Quigleys Point, Muff; Darren Quinn (21) from Meenagorey, Buncrana; Gavin Duffy (21) from Meenagorey, Buncrana; Charlene O Connor (21) Straboe, Buncrana and Rochelle Peoples (22) from The Woods Buncrana.

Gardai said a full road traffic investigation had been launched into the collision.

In a separate road accident, a man in his twenties was killed in the same area of Donegal this morning.

The man - believed to be from Derry - was the back seat passenger in a car and was killed instantly when the vehicle crashed into a cement gate post on the Birdstown Road between Muff and Burnfoot just after 3am.

Three other men and a woman in the car, all of them in their twenties, were injured though not seriously.

This afternoon gardai named the motorcyclist who died when his bike collided with a car in Swords in north Dublin.

The deceased was Thomas Creagh (49) Fairways Park, Finglas, Dublin 11.

On Friday night a woman in Co Tipperary was killed and five others injured in a two-car collision outside Clonmel.

Samantha Butler (20) from Carrick-on-Suir was a front seat passenger in one of the cars in the accident at Two Mile Bridge on the main Clonmel-Waterford Road at 10.30pm.