A counsellor and a chaplain spent yesterday in the North Presentation Convent in Cork trying to assuage the grief of youngsters who had heard that two of their classmates had been critically injured in a road accident.
The injured girls are Jennifer McCarthy and Lora Wise, both aged 14, who were walking home from school when they were hit by a pick-up truck.
Staff at the Cork University hospital said last night they were fighting for their lives. It is understood one of the girls is on a life support system.
The girls are from the Knockpogue Avenue area of Farranree and are studying for their Junior Cert.
Eiri Chriost which adjoins the North Presentation Secondary School where they are studying the usual Junior Cert. subjects.
The driver of the pick-up truck has been questioned by gardai. Sister Angela, who teaches in another Presentation Convent in Cork, said last night that news had spread quickly of the threat to the girls' lives and everyone in her school was shocked and praying that they might recover.
In the local Fairfield Tavern the proprietor said that everyone coming into his pub was upset about the news. "People are very sad about it. You could come up here and see it for yourself. But I think it was just a freak accident and in a way that makes it worse."
Mr John O'Riordan, the principal of the school, said they are very popular students. "We have had the counsellor and the chaplain in to help as best we can with the shock that is being experienced by everyone after what has happened."