The M9 fatal collision was not an unforeseen event but a disaster waiting to happen. A few days earlier eight teens in a stolen car and an innocent man in his own vehicle were injured, a thirteen year old critically. The gang of eight on the M50, like those in the M9 crash, were in pursuit of whatever thrill is to be derived from racing the wrong way down a motorway. Perhaps the deceased boys felt safe given the time, 0300, when traffic on the road could be expected to be light and oncoming vehicles visible. Whatever their calculations they were fatally let down by them, their lives cut short and their families left to grieve.
As tragic as it is, no amount of sympathetic spin can distort what happened: the five lads were behaving badly. They were a danger to the public and in some cases had previous. The supposed leader of the group was on bail and prohibited from leaving his county. The youth suspected of being the driver was the subject of a gardaí investigation in relation to a violent feud. As a gang, they stood accused of terrorising communities in the weeks before they died. Conversely, the four passengers in the car they slammed into in a head on collision were blameless. Ella Hendricken, Niamh Kinsella, Alma Kinsella and their young nephew were on their way to the airport.
For those who hoped the shocking loss of life might put an end to the wrong way driving craze, they must have despaired upon learning that four days after Sunday's crash yet another car driven by joyriders failed to stop for Gardai. It too was driving down the wrong side on St Margaret's Road, Ballymun.
These cars in the hands of joyriders are a lethal weapon. While it is not their intent to kill anyone, the occupants are at the very least guilty of reckless endangerment. People are frightened by them and can react in a very unsympathetic manner upon learning of their fate.
Martin Collins of Pavee Point sought to put some perspective on the action of the deceased: “At the end of the day, you are talking about five young lads who are very immature doing what they thought was bravado."
While a s take, it is not possible to compel people to show sympathy in any situation. Empathy seems to be an acquired human trait not an inherent one, a finite resource sparingly applied. In this case, empathy was reserved for the injured women and their nephew rather than the deceased. The Garda Commissioner was not inclusive in his very focused expression of sympathy as he dispassionately sought to steer culpability to where it belonged, reserving his concern not for those who lost their lives but for those who almost lost theirs.
Some may find the Commissioner's response cold, but it is far removed from the type of abuse hurled at the families of the dead teens. Joe Carthy, Alex McCarthy, Kamil Pustkowski, Jeremy O'Brien and Jack Kennedy left grieving and distraught families. Even if there is no 'level of compassion and humanity for those five young people and their families', to malevolently abuse those left to pick up the pieces is callous and gratuitous. It reveals much more about those who hurl the malice than those it was directed against. The resort to bilious invective on the grounds that three of the dead teens hailed from the Traveller community, is unadulterated racist hatred. Telling the grieving families that "they should be exterminated, put in concentration camps or gas chambers" is the language of fascism.
The five dead teens were 'reckless and dangerous.' For their activities they should be in Oberstown Children Detention Campus, not graveyards. If compassion is beyond you, then try to ensure that cruelty is also.
