Meath community remembers five girls who died in bus crash on 20th anniversary of their deaths
On May 23, 2005, five young girls lost their lives while on a school bus carrying 51 pupils on the Navan to Kentstown Road in Meath. Many other secondary school students were injured.
At the site of the crash is a memorial with five cherry trees, one for each of the young girls who never made it home to their families.
Their names are Lisa Callan (15), Clare McCluskey (18), Aimee McCabe (15), Deirdre Scanlon (17) and Sinead Ledwidge (15).
Now 20 years later, what happened on that Monday afternoon is still 'cemented' in people's memories.
Leas-Cathaoirleach of Navan, Alan Lawes said: 'The tragic event is cemented in the memories of everyone because so many young people died.'
'The children at the school were devastated. The whole community was devastated. They [the young girls] will always be remembered as this was a tragic thing to happen to any community.'
Four of the girls, Aimee, Clare, Deirdre and Lisa attended St Michael's Loreto while Sinéad was a student at Beaufort College in Navan.
This evening, the local parish priest Fr David Brennan will say a memorial mass in the Church of the Assumption, Yellow Furze, Beauparc.
The annual mass offers another opportunity for the community to come together and support the families who lost loved ones.
A councillor from the Ashbourne Municipal District, close to where the crash took place, Joe Bonner said: 'Our thoughts are still with the families. We recognise the suffering and loss they've had to go through.'
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In the aftermath of the crash, Bus Éireann, Meath County Council and Keltank Ltd, a garage which serviced the bus, pleaded guilty to various charges in relation to the crash. Bus Éireann was fined €2m and Meath County Council and Keltank Ltd were each fined €100,000.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
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