Alma and 30-year-old Niamh Kinsella, her younger sister Ella Hendricken, and the 7-year-old son of one of them were on their way to Dublin Airport to attend a family wedding in England.
It was 3 a.m. on August 16 on the M9 motorway in County Kildare. A high-powered BMW, allegedly stolen hours earlier in Athy, was traveling the wrong way with five teenagers aboard, all of them wearing masks over their faces. Minutes earlier, a patrol had ordered them to stop, and the driver had fled. The collision was head-on.
The five young people — aged between 15 and 17 — died at the scene. The family survived, but Alma and Niamh remain in critical condition in hospital, while Ella and the child are receiving treatment for serious injuries. A priest from their parish in Carlow described the family as ‘devastated with grief’. Police are investigating whether the teenagers were part of a gang dedicated to stealing cars in the area.