THE 17 year old girl who died after being crushed at a concert in Dublin's Point Theatre on Saturday night was Bernadette O'Brien, from Shanagarry, near Midleton in Co Cork.
A transition year student in St Colman's Community College, Midleton, Ms O'Brien travelled to Dublin on Friday with a friend and stayed overnight with two cousins. All four went to the concert.
Ms O'Brien and her friends were apparently standing at the front of the stage when the accident occurred at about 10 p.m. A doctor called to the scene arranged for the injured teenager to be taken to the Mater Hospital, where she was put on a life support machine a short time later.
Her parents, Noel and Annemarie O'Brien, rushed to Dublin by car to be at her bedside, and with doctors made the decision to have the life support machine switched off yesterday afternoon. Ms O'Brien had suffered severe internal injuries, according to hospital authorities.
Bernadette was the O'Briens' only daughter. They have one son, Brendan (16). Her grandmother, Mrs Nell O'Brien (84), said the family was heartbroken and still could not believe what had happened. "Bernadette was always so full of life," she said.
Ms O'Brien had worked as an extra on the unfinished film Divine Rapture, starring Marlon Brando, which was filmed in Ballycotton near her home last summer. Her father is a fisherman and chef, and her mother works with the handicapped.
Teachers at her school were making arrangements for a guard of honour at the funeral Mass, which is expected to take place tomorrow.
The promoter of the concert, Mr Dennis Desmond, expressed sympathy with the family and said that the death was a terrible tragedy which had affected him and the band enormously.