A teacher, a student and a mechanic: Who were the five friends who died in Co Louth crash?
Victims, all in their early 20s, died after the car they were travelling in collided with an SUV on Saturday night
From left: Chloe McGee (23), Shay Duffy (21), Dylan Commins (23), Alan McCluskey (23) and Chloe Hipson (21). Photograph: The Irish Times/Montage of handout imagery from An Garda Síochána
Five young friends died in a road crash in Co Louth over the weekend, with three others taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The group of friends are understood to have been going to socialise in Dundalk, when the Volkswagen Golf they were travelling in collided with a Toyota Land Cruiser just after 9pm on Saturday in the townland of Gibstown.
Chloe McGee (23) from Carrickmaross, Co Monaghan
Ms McGee was a woodwork and construction teacher at Ó Fiaich Institute, Dundalk. School principal Pádraig McGovern said she was “full of fun and achievement and success”.
“She was very keen on her job, she was very much a part of the fabric of our school among students and staff,” he told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland. “She loved to help her students and loved to go the extra mile, was very good at her subject and was also the sort of girl that was involved in everything, all sorts of staff activities, any sort of new projects, anything that we were looking at to develop, she was there and willing to take part.”
Ms McGee, who had worked at the school for three years, had recently been made permanent.
She was the eldest daughter in her family and had a younger brother and sister.
Msgr Shane McCaughey, parish priest of Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, said Ms McGee was from a farming family who were “salt of the earth”.
“She had no bother putting on the wellingtons one moment and putting on the glad rags the next,” he said.
Ms McGee was in a relationship with Alan McCluskey.
Alan McCluskey (23) from Drumconrath, Co Meath
Mr McCluskey worked as a fencing contractor in the northeast and helped on his father’s farm. He had just returned from a holiday to Dubai with Ms McGee, to celebrate her permanent position.
In one of the pictures of their travels, Ms McGee described themselves as being “just two big kids loving life”.
Fr Finian Connaughton, the parish priest of Drumconrath, said he knew Mr McCluskey and his family very well.
“I would have known Alan from his very earliest days – given him his First Communion, Confirmation, and I know the family, a very regular attender at church, it would have to be said,” he told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.
“Alan and his family are very much involved here in the parish, so it was devastation to hear that news.”
Shay Duffy (21) from Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan
Mr Duffy was an avid GAA player, and is survived by his parents Raymond and Carmel and brothers Vinnie and Ben.
Magheracloone Mitchells Gaelic football club said Mr Duffy was a former player and extended their condolences to his and the other victims’ families.
Mr Duffy was also a former student of Dundalk Institute of Technology and recently completed phase six of his plumbing apprenticeship there. He was back with his employer to finish his apprenticeship in plumbing.
Diarmuid O’Callaghan, president of DKIT, said Mr Duffy was described by staff as “an excellent student” who was “very highly thought of”.
Dylan Commins (23) from Ardee, Co Louth
Mr Commins was a car and motocross enthusiast who worked as a mechanic in north Co Meath.
He is understood to have been childhood friends with Mr McCluskey.
Chloe Hipson (21) from Lanarkshire, Scotland
Ms Hipson, who was living in Carrickmacross, had moved from Scotland to Ireland to study quantity surveying at Dundalk Institute of Technology, where she was in her second year. She had graduated from South Lanarkshire College in East Kilbride.
A number of amateur football teams in Lanarkshire have offered their condolences.
Scottish soccer club Bellshill Amateurs FC said her older brother Ryan had played in a match over the weekend. “Football takes a step back today for us as we were devastated to hear of the passing of Chloe Hipson, younger sister of our own Ryan Hipson, our thoughts are with all the Hipson family during this devastating time. Rest in peace Chloe,” the club said in a statement on Sunday.
“As a mark of respect to Chloe and the Hipson family we will hold a minute’s applause prior to kick off on Saturday morning.”
Amateur side Fir Park Corner FC said: “Everyone at Fir Park Corner would like to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Chloe Hipson.
“Our thoughts are especially with Ryan Hipson, who played against us yesterday before receiving such devastating news. The whole football community stands with you.”
Friends also posted tributes on social media, with one describing her as “absolutely one of a kind, the funniest, most gorgeous girl in the land”.
On Ms Hipson’s LinkedIn profile, she said she had recently moved from Scotland to Ireland and had a keen focus on construction administration.
“My goal is to continue on in the construction industry and climb the ladder, driven by a commitment to improve,” her page said.
Mr O’Callaghan, from DKIT, said she was remembered by staff as a “very friendly and diligent student” who was well liked and “always smiling”.
“Show him kindness and understanding,” pleaded a paramedic who arrived at the scene of Ireland’s most devastating teen road crash in decades, as the sole survivor, 20-year-old Dylan East, clings to life in hospital while grappling with the unimaginable torment of losing his five dearest friends. The horrific single-vehicle collision on the L3168 near Gibstown, Co. Louth, on November 17 claimed the lives of Aoife McGrath (17), Ava O’Brien (18), Nicole Murphy (17), Kian Finnegan (18), and Grace Murtagh (17) – a group of close-knit teens returning from a night out in Navan. Dylan, the driver, escaped with severe injuries but now faces a heartbreaking battle: the anguish of survivor’s guilt, stretching to the very depths of pain, as a nation rallies around him with calls for compassion amid the grief.
The tragedy unfolded just after 9:40 p.m. when the 2008 Volkswagen Golf, carrying six teenagers, lost control on a gentle left-hand bend at Gibstown Cross. Dylan, who had passed his driving test only six weeks earlier, was at the wheel, with his friends crammed into the front and rear seats – three up front, three in back, none secured by belts. The car mounted the verge, became airborne, and slammed sideways into a tree at passenger-door height, crumpling the roof like tinfoil and ejecting occupants in a blur of glass and metal. Dylan, partially thrown through the windscreen, survived with fractures, internal bleeding, and lacerations; the others did not, dying from multiple traumatic injuries.
Paramedic Siobhan Kelly, first on scene with the Navan fire brigade, described a “scene from hell” in a tearful RTÉ interview. “Dylan was screaming their names, bloodied arms prying at the doors,” she said. “He had cuts from glass, burns from the dashboard – he’d unbuckled and tried to pull Grace from the back window, but the roof collapsed. Sadly, he did not have time to rescue the rest of them.” Kelly’s plea for kindness has gone viral, with #KindnessForDylan trending at 1.5 million posts. “He’s a boy who lost five siblings in spirit,” she added. “The guilt could break him – show him mercy.”
Drogheda, the commuter town of 40,000 where the teens grew up, is in mourning. Schools closed for assemblies, with Aoife’s classmates singing “Hallelujah,” Ava’s friends laying flowers at the cross, and Nicole’s soccer club holding silence. Kian and Grace, inseparable since primary school, were remembered at a vigil of 2,000. Dylan’s family shields him from media; his statement: “Praying for healing and peace.”
The coroner’s report confirmed no alcohol or drugs in Dylan’s system, with speed (110–120 km/h in an 80 km/h zone) and overloading as primary factors. “The absence of restraints was catastrophic,” Chief State Pathologist Dr. Alan Farrell said. The Golf, with six in five seats, flipped three times before stopping 50 meters off-road.
The crash has reignited safety debates. RSA reports 142 teen fatalities in 2025, 68% unbelted. “Six won’t fit in five,” CEO Grace Craig said, launching “One Seat, One Life” with mandatory limits in tests. Fines rise to €5,000 from January.
Funerals begin Saturday, with a procession and minute’s silence. In Gibstown’s bends, five lights snuffed too soon. Dylan’s desperate seconds were heroism’s cruel limit – a call to drive safer, hug tighter, live fuller.
