Gardai have the released the names of the five young people killed in a two-car collision near Muff in Donegal earlier today. The five - all in their twenties - were among six people killed in another tragic night on Irish roads which also left two people seriously injured in hospital.
The five were named this evening 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 Rachelle Peoples (22) from The Woods Buncrana.
They were all in one vehicle when it collided with another car at Quigley's Point at 3.30am. The male driver of the other car was injured and taken to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry.
Gardai said a full road traffic investigation had been launched into the collision. Weather conditions are understood to have been extremely bad at the time of the collision.
Local priest Fr Con McLoughlin, who was called to the crash scene, said the community was shocked by the deaths.
"All the families are local to the Inishowen area and know each other.
"When I visited the scene, the families were beginning to arrive and there was an atmosphere of stunned silence.
"The enormity of the tragedy is slowly sinking in with everybody."
In a separate accident, a woman in Co Tipperary was killed and five others injured in a two-car collision outside Clonmel.
The victim, who was in her twenties, was a passenger in one of the two vehicles in the crash.
One of the injured is said to be in a critical condition.
The accident happened at Two Mile Bridge on the main Clonmel-Waterford Road at 10.30pm last night.
The N24 road near Kilsheelan village will be sealed off until further notice, gardai said. Of the injured, three females were taken to Waterford Regional Hospital.
Two are described as serious, including an eight-year-old girl. The other two injured, one male and a female were taken to Our Lady's Hospital in Cashel with minor injuries.
The latest victims bring the 2005 road death toll to 299, including 17 for the month of October.