Anniversary of fatal crash in Mullingar in which five Carlow people died 

TODAY, Wednesday, May 27, marks the 75th anniversary of a tragedy which rocked Carlow when five Gaelic football supporters from the county town were killed in a road accident that became known locally, with saddest reflection, as ‘The Mullingar Crash.’ What had started out as a happy sporting occasion for this Carlow group supporting the red, green and yellow of their county, turned to tragedy on their homeward journey from Mullingar when their Comer station wagon was in head-on collision with a Dodge car about seven miles from the County Westmeath town.

On that Sundary afternoon, May 27, 1951 Carlow footballers engaged Longford in a replayed Preliminary Round Leinster senior football championship tie at Cusack Park, Mullingar, a game the Barrowsiders lost by 1-7 to 1-1, after the sides had drawn 1-8 (Carlow) 2-5 (Longford) in O’Moore Park, Portlaoise a week earlier.

But the outcome of the game was totally overshadowed when the news broke later that night confirming the deaths of five of the 11 occupants of the Comer, plunging the people of Carlow into mourning as the community sought to come to terms with the scale of the loss.

A sense of shock and gloom enveloped the town.

On Monday, Fair Day in Carlow, the atmosphere in the crowded town was charged with a deep sense of sorrow and sympathy for the families and relatives of the deceased and those injured in the accident.

The crash happened before 8 pm at a location near Kneadsbridge when the Carlow bound vehicle and the oncoming Dodge, collided. It happened on a straight stretch of road just after the Carlow registered station wagon had crossed a place known locally as Lynch’s Bridge.

The Dodge was carrying the members of the seven-piece Jack Frazier dance band from Dublin, heading for Mullingar to play at a dance in the County Westmeath town.

Four men and one woman lost their lives in the crash.

The victims, all from the Carlow town area were: Hannah Hogan, aged 19, of 87 St Killian’s Crescent, the youngest victim; 36-year-old Thomas Hade, 6 Granby Row, a married man with four children; George Smith, Dublin Road, a native of Dublin and father of three; Edward Moore (37), Staplestown Road, who died some hours after the accident; and widower and father of five Joseph Egerton, 3 Charlottle Street, who passed away shortly after being admitted to hospital.

Joseph Egerton’s daughter and son Maura and Richard Egerton survived the crash, as did Patrick Whelan (44), Dublin Road, brother-in-law of George Smith.

The other survivors were: Ned Pinckney, aged 23, of Dublin Road, Thomas McKechnie (25), from 32 Tullow Street, who was engaged to Hannah Hogan; and Jack Bergin, aged 63, of Chain Lodge, Palatine and Moorestown, Ducketts Grove.

All the occupants of the Dodge had Dublin addresses.

The driver, Larry Moore, South Circular Road, escaped miraculously through a back window of his wrecked vehicle. His injuries were not serous.

Three passengers from the car were detained in hospital while four passengers were discharged following treatment.

Huge crowds attended the obsequies for the five victims four of whom – Miss Hogan, Joseph Egerton, Thomas Hade and Edward Moore - were removed from Mullingar to the Cathedral of the Assumption in Carlow on Monday, May 28.

Hundreds of people gathered beyond the town’s Sugar Factory to meet the hearses and an estimated 5,000 sympathisers were present by the time the cortege reached College Street, as the remains of the victims were received into the cathedral.

Very Rev D B Kennedy, Adm., Carlow celebrated a Special Requiem Mass on the Tuesday morning.

All business in Carlow town was suspended for the morning as a mark of respect.

Following Mass the four burials took place in St Mary’s cemetery, Carlow.

On the following day the remains of George Smith were interred in Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin.

Three quarter of a century on from this tragic road crash the survivors from that generation of Carlovians from the early 1950s still remember the Mullingar crash as being a very dark for the Barrowside town community.