One of the two sisters who were killed in a car crash in France on Tuesday morning, Jenny Miller (28), was due to get engaged this Christmas to her long-term boyfriend.
Ms Miller and her sister Catherine (22) were travelling to the home of their parents for Christmas when the accident happened at Cholet, near Nantes in the west of the country.
The older sister, a former pilot and air traffic controller, had travelled to Paris to collect her sibling, a drama student at Trinity college, to bring her to La Rochelle in the Vendée, where their parents, Liam (56), a retired RTÉ executive, and his wife, Britt, had moved to in the last 18 months.The accident occurred in the early hours of Tuesday when their car collided with two trucks in treacherous driving conditions.
Yesterday RTÉ broadcaster Pat Kenny led tributes to the two young women, whom he knew well. Their father retired from his position as managing director of the station last year. He was travelling home to La Rochelle from the US at the time of the accident.
"All of RTÉ, I have to tell you, is in mourning," he said on his radio programme yesterday. "I've known the children nearly all of their lives and I have to tell you they were wonderful human beings, and it's no exaggeration, no hyperbole to say, I would have been proud to have them as my own daughters."