*Photograph: John Mangan
A CLARE politician has come under fire for labelling the teenage boys who died in the fatal M9 collision as “thugs”.
Clare Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe criticised some of the online reaction to a fatal collision on the M9 in County Kildare, saying he is concerned about the “glamourising” of dangerous driving online.
In a post shared to his Facebook page on Monday, August 17, Mr Crowe said he was “sick of seeing people eulogising and heaping praise on thugs”.
“Our sympathies and concerns should be for victims,” he said, adding, “Our support should be for An Garda Síochána.”
The post came after a fatal collision at Moone in Co Kildare on the M9 northbound at Junction 3 at around 3am on Sunday, August 16. Five teenage boys died after the vehicle they were travelling in the wrong direction on the motorway collided with a second car.
The second vehicle contained three women, two aged in their 30s and one in her 20s, and a seven-year-old boy. All four were taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Mr Crowe’s Facebook post attracted thousands of reactions and hundreds of comments before the comments were later limited.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Mr Crowe said he had sympathy for the families of those who died, but said his concern was with what he had seen online following the collision.
“I don’t like what I have seen online over the past 48 hours where a lot of young people are eulogising these five people and portraying them as heroes and glamourising this type of dangerous driving and that’s primarily what my post related to,” he said.
Mr Crowe said his primary concern was for the three women and seven-year-old boy who were seriously injured and hoped they would recover.
He said he had also viewed a series of TikTok videos involving dangerous driving.
“They’re not fatal incidents – and not all of them result in accidents – but I have seen far too many of these videos online, where people are challenging each other or are glamourising this type of driving and it’s absolutely reckless,” he said.
Asked whether he would change the wording of his original post, including his use of the word “thugs”, Mr Crowe said: “I don’t think we should be sugarcoating what has happened here in any way.”
He also called for a “more aggressive approach to road safety”, including training and possible future legislation to give Gardaí greater powers to take affirmative action.
The post prompted a mixed response online, with some commenters criticising Mr
One commenter described it as “an unbelievable post from a TD”, saying the five teenagers were “sons, brothers, grandsons and nephews to heartbroken families” and urging people not to be “so quick to judge”.
Another commenter said: “100% agree… thoughts also go to the emergency services staff of Ambulance and Fire Services that have to deal with these accident scenes.”
At the time of publication, the post remains live on Mr Crowe’s Facebook page.
