The last day of an emigrant's holiday in the west turned into tragedy when a mother and her two daughters died in a car crash near Galway city yesterday.
Mrs Mary Devane (31), a US citizen of Irish-American stock, and her two daughters, Elaine (9) and Christine (8), were killed instantly when the car in which they were travelling struck a stone pier outside a guesthouse on the Galway-Clifden road.
Her husband, Mr Mairtin O Dubhain, originally from Carna in the Connemara Gaeltacht, and two other children were seriously injured.
Five-year old Brenda Devane was in critical condition in intensive care last night in University College Hospital, Galway. Her father and her two-year-old brother, Michael Martin, were described as stable.
The family had spent three weeks on holiday in Carna and elsewhere and left the Gaeltacht village shortly after 8 a.m. yesterday on their way to Shannon Airport, en route to their home in West Roxbury, Boston.
Mr O Dubhain was driving towards Galway in their rented Toyota Carina. Shortly after 10 a.m., he negotiated a dangerous bend and, it is understood, the car skidded on a stretch made slippery by recent rains.
It struck a stone pillar in front of a guesthouse. The stretch of road is liable to flooding during heavy rain.
Inspector Pat Gannon, of Millstreet Garda Station in Galway, said it was too early to say if rain contributed to the accident.
"There are probably many contributory factors," he said. "We can't really judge at the moment."
Like many other emigrants from the west, Mr O Dubhain was a young man when he left his home in Roisin na Mainiach, Carna, to seek work in the United States.
While there, he met and married Mary Beatty, whose father also came from Roisin na Mainiach.
They settled in the Irish-American suburb of West Roxbury, where their daughters attended St Theresa's school.
After a separate collision yesterday, three people were taken to University College Hospital, Galway. This followed a head-on crash between two cars just outside Tuam, Co Galway.
The two cars were heading in opposite directions on the Galway road, just outside the town. Firemen used cutting equipment to release two of the injured.