THE man in his fifties, killed in a tragic farm accident near Ballyea, has been named locally as Gerry O’Connell.
Shortly before 10pm on Wednesday night, Gardaí and emergency services were called to the farm where Mr O’Connell had suffered fatal injuries in the incident, believed to have involved a tractor and trailer. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The area was sealed off pending the arrival this morning of the Health and Safety Authority who will commence their own investigation.
The deceased man is well known in GAA circles and one of his son’s, Gearóid is a member of the Clare U-21 hurling team that faces Wexford next week in the All-Ireland final in Thurles. Another son Paddy is very prominent with the Ballyea hurling and Clondegad football clubs.
Pending confirmation of the funeral arrangements, it is unlikely that Clondegad’s senior football championship quarter-final game with Kilmurry Ibrickane and their junior ‘A’ championship play-off game with Lissycasey, both scheduled for this weekend, will go ahead.
This is the second fatality in a farm-related accident in Clare in the space of a couple of weeks. A Liscannor man sustained fatal head injuries in an accident two weeks ago when fitting a wheel on a lorry.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.