Tributes flood in for award-winning photojournalist killed in crash
Mr O'Neill, who was aged 62, was travelling on a motorcycle when
he was involved in a collision with a tractor-trailer yesterday morning.
He was brought to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The collision occurred at approximately 10:50am on the Old Airport Road (Collinstown Lane) in Co Dublin.
Colleagues of Mr O'Neill, as well as members of Irish media who have worked with or alongside the photographer over the years, have expressed their condolences at his loss.
Crime and Defence editor at the Irish Daily Star and the Irish Mirror, Michael O'Toole, wrote: 'We're all devastated by the death of our much loved photographer, colleague and friend Mick O'Neill.
'Mick was the snapper's snapper. There was nobody who came close to him. He travelled all over Ireland and the world doing a job he loved and excelled at, one which came naturally to him.
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'I have never seen any media professional as gifted as Mick at talking to people, at making them feel at ease in the most stressful of situations, at connecting with them, essentially. He made the job of the reporter working with him easy.'
Crime correspondent at the Irish Daily Star and the Irish Mirror, Paul Healy, similarly expressed his shock and sadness at the news of Mr O'Neill's death. He wrote in a post to X that Mr O'Neill 'loved his family and his two young grandchildren especially'. He also loved his motorbike, Healy wrote, and was often out in the country enjoying it when he wasn't working.
Editor of the Irish Star and the Irish Daily Mirror, Neil Leslie said that all of Mr O'Neill's colleagues at the two papers he worked as a photographer for, but also the wider group of Reach Ireland are devastated at his untimely loss.
'On behalf of Reach, I would like to extend our deepest sympathies and offer our support to his family and all his many friends and colleagues.
'Mick was a truly outstanding journalist and photographer. Moreover, he was a great friend and a wise mentor to the other journalists who worked alongside him over many years.'
Mr O'Neill had worked for the Irish Daily Star for 25 years.
He is survived by his wife Lorraine, son Karl and two grandchildren, Mya and Kai, as well as a wide circle of family members and friends.
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