Tributes paid to popular teenager

Tributes have been paid to the Carrickmore teenager killed in Saturday's fatal road crash near Pomeroy ahead of his funeral later this morning (Thursday). Kevin Conway (18) from Tremogue will be laid to rest in Carrickmore today after Requiem Mass in St Columcille's Church at 11am.

Killed along with his 16-year-old girlfriend Lisa O'Donnell, just days after he passed his driving test, the deaths have left the local community shocked and stunned since the weekend. His older brother Shane travelled home from Australia for today's funeral. Both are well known members of the Eire Og hurling club in Carrickmore. A member of the club's minor panel, Kevin had recently taken part in an indoor hurling league in Loughmacrory and was in the Eire Og panel for the Ulster minor club league.
Today, club members will prepare a guard of honour in memory of their player. Eire Og chairman Declan Bennett said Kevin's death had devastated the entire club and its many young members. "I was up at the wake and all you seen was young people, all his friends were there. It seems almost unreal that somebody so young could be taken so soon," he said.
He added that the death had reverberated across the GAA community, with messages of sympathy from many clubsacross the county and beyond. Peter Kerr who coached Kevin from ayoung age described him as popular and mannered young man, who was "committed to the game of hurling".
"It is just devastating," he said. "It has been an awful shock to the lads, especially to his friends who were out with him on Friday night. "They are at the same stage in life and
it is just an awful blow." A former pupil at Dean Maguirc College, the 18-year-old had last year transferred to South West College, Omagh to pursue a course as an electrician.
Dean Maguirc principal James Wamock said the death of the former student had left "a sense of shock and disbelief" within the school community. "He was a bright and popular pupil and his untimely death has left a numbness in our school and it is a most distressing time especially for his former
classmates who are now in Year 14," he said. "Our hearts go out to his parents, Francis and Pauline and his brother Shane, another past pupil, who has had to make a most difficult trip back to Carrickmore from Australia."

The principal also offered his sympathy to the family and relatives of Lisa O'Donnell, who he said has many cousins at the school. "It is most hard to comprehend that two young lives can end so abruptly and then the devastation that ensues for both families."

Courtesy of The Ulster Herald Tweet

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