*Helga Himmselbach puts questions to Cllr Joe Garrihy.
ONE MONTH on from the death of Lisdoonvarna’s Jerry O’Connor, a remembrance walk was held in Ballyvaughan with repeated questions put towards politicians on what they are doing to improve the safety of the road network in North Clare.
An approximate 100 people walked from the Burren College of Art to St John the Baptist Church in Ballyvaughan, a distance of over two kilometres. They were led by Jerry’s widow, Helga Himmelsbach who rode on horseback while hi-visibility jackets sporting the message ‘Remember Jerry, stop the carnage’ were worn by participants.
On their way, walkers passed the spot where Jerry was killed while travelling on his motorbike on Thursday July 27th. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the other vehicle, a French tourist Olivier Le Bozec has appeared before Ennis District Court charged with dangerous driving, Judge Alec Gabbett has remanded Mr Le Bozec on bail and adjourned the case to the middle of November.
Speaking in Ballyvaughan, Helga told the gathering, “Four other people have already been hit and have had life-changing injuries at the spot where Jerry got killed on a normal Thursday morning going about his business. It could have been me, you, your husband, your wife, your child or your friend”.
She explained her decision to ride on horseback, “You might wonder why I brought Harry along today, Harry was a great friend of Jerry’s, he loved riding Harry and we kindly have Harry on loan after our own beautiful horse died unexpectedly a few months ago so we wouldn’t be all alone, I’m very thankful that I have Harry so I am not all alone. Harry stands here for every horse that Jerry used to ride, I know a lot of you would not have known that Jerry apart from being a particularly good carpenter, an amazing healer but also a farmer, Harry used to be the kind of horse that Jerry would ride in Hawaii when he was cattle farming with his step-father, Hawaii being so mountainous all the ranch work is done on horseback. It was another amazing link that Jerry and I had in common, we had a passion for life which included horses.
“For me here today it is an amazing feeling to be here with you, being able to share and feel your support for a pain that could have been avoided and that nobody under those circumstances should be going through but it has happened and so far nothing has been done so that it will not happen again this very evening”.
