A drunk driver has been jailed for seven and half years, after causing a fatal head-on collision in which a child was killed.
Forty-year-old Finbarr O’Rourke of Laurel Drive in Portlaoise drank between eight and ten pints of cider on the day of the crash, and got into his car after having an argument with a friend.
Gillian Treacy had been returning home with sons Ciarán (4) and Seán (7) after visiting their grandparents when the collision took place, killing Ciarán and leaving mum Gillian with catastrophic leg injuries.
In her victim impact statement, Gillian Treacy remembered the horror of what happened that day, saying:
“The last sighting I had of Ciaran was him being carried to the side of the road, with the evening sun beaming through his blonde hair. The next time I saw my little boy, was on a stretcher –Dead.”
Both parents added that they are ‘paralysed with grief and in the depths of despair’ and ‘have gone through hell and back’ since Ciaran’s death.
Sentencing Mr O’Rourke to almost eight years in prison and banning from driving for 20 years, Judge Johnson said that Ciarán’s needless death should be a wake-up call for the nation, and called for more intense campaigning around drink driving and longer sentences for those convicted.
