Donegal agencies lend their support
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AGENCIES in Donegal helped to advise youth services in Killarney following last Wednesday's tragic events on the N72.
Eight people, including seven youths, died in the July 11 incident on the Inishowen Peninsula that sent shockwaves across the north west and sparked widespread grief amongst youths in the tight knit community.
Lessons from that experience were passed onto representatives at the KDYS in Killarney last week as youths who knew David and Kevin Breen, Brian Coffey or Áine Riordan tried to come to terms with just what had happened. A counsellor was available last week and in the days after the event, representatives from Ballyspillane Community Centre were also on hand to assist close to the Breen home.
While Killarney KDYS Manager Gemma O'Brien pointed out that the KDYS was not a counselling service she said the service's facilities had been readily available since the accident.
"We have been given good advice with how to deal with this by agencies up in Donegal. The HSE in Donegal was also onto us offering advice and support and they have been extremely helpful."
"All along we have also provided somewhere for young people to gather and simply talk and we will continue to do that, particularly as it all begins to sink in.
"We opened our youth centre for an extended period of time and we brought back staff who had been on annual leave. We have also been making referrals to counsellors."
The local KDYS manager said that the days immediately after the tragedy were taken up by the funeral including specifics such as the guard of honour .
"All along we have also provided somewhere for young people to gather and simply talk and we will continue to do that, particularly as it all begins to sink in," Gemma continued.
"We have also had the HSE locally in contact to assist and we have tried to complement the work that is being done in the Ballyspillane centre."
- KEVIN HUGHES
