Police crowd funerals for two teens killed in M9 wrong-way crash

Two funeral masses were held on Friday, August 21, under a significant police presence for teenagers Joe Carthy and Alex McCarthy, who were among five young people killed in a wrong-way collision on the M9 motorway earlier this week. The services took place in Athy, County Kildare, and Carlow as the community and nation grappled with the tragedy that also left a child and three women from another family with serious injuries.

The crash occurred in the early hours of Sunday, August 16, when a car carrying the five teenagers collided head-on with another vehicle on the M9 in County Kildare. Gardaí have stated the teenagers' vehicle was travelling against oncoming traffic. Joe Carthy, 15, was laid to rest on Friday morning in a gold coffin that arrived at the church on a white horse-drawn carriage. Mourners wore white T-shirts bearing his image, and officers established checkpoints around the town due to public outrage. Later in the afternoon, a funeral mass for 17-year-old Alex McCarthy was held in Askea, Carlow, where Father Tom Little spoke of lives lost and families left with enduring grief. The four other teenagers killed were identified as Jack Kennedy, Jeremy O'Brien, and...