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AN IRISH BISHOP is pleading with road users to “take responsibility” and for families to have conversations with each other about road safety ahead of a ‘blessing of the roads’ ceremony tomorrow.
Bishop Fintan Monahan has described the number of deaths on Irish roads this year as a “national tragedy” and a “failure in both public policy and in our own personal driving behaviour”.
174 people died in 160 fatal collisions in the Republic of Ireland last year. Together with fatalities in Northern Ireland, more than 240 people died in collisions on the island in 2024.
The issue garnered significant public attention last year as the government, Road Safety Authority and gardaí faced pressure to take measures to tackle the high numbers.
In a statement this morning, Bishop Monahan said there is an “urgent need for a collective effort to reduce these preventable deaths”.
“It is crucial that families take responsibility for road deaths by discussing road safety at home. Every loss of life on our roads is a tragedy that impacts not just the individuals, families and local communities directly, but our entire society,” he said.
“Once a leader in road safety standards, Ireland now has one of the fastest-growing road death rates in Europe,” he added.
“So many of these tragic fatalities are preventable, and an improvement requires constant care, attention, and vigilance from all road users: motorists, motorcyclists, cyclists, or pedestrians, as well as effective partnership with the relevant civic authorities.”
The bishop is due to pray for the protection of road users at a ‘blessing of the roads’ ceremony tomorrow after Mass at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Ennis, Co Clare.
He said that “the road safety record, both in the Republic and in the North, is of deep concern to me”.
“The pain felt by loved ones of those lost on roads is particularly acute as this loss of human life is entirely preventable.”
At the end of the year, RSA chief executive Sam Waide said a reduction in the number of fatalities from 181 in 2023 to 174 in 2024 was an “very modest but important step in reversing the high number of road deaths we’ve seen over the past two years”.
Minister of State with special responsibility for Road Safety James Lawless said his “department is focused on making our roads safer for everyone who uses them”, while Assistant Garda Commissioner Paula Hilman said gardaí have been “working around the clock every day of this year to help keep road users safe”.
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Can someone ask the Bishop why last years road blessing ceremony appears to have been a complete failure? Let’s discuss ways to improve road safety etc. without the voodoo nonsense. I’ll be outside my gate with a witch doctors rattle and some incense sticks later doing much the same thing, with similar results.
@honey badger:
Would probably be the most useful and sensible thing you’d done in years, go ahead, you have my blessing!
@honey badger: What harm badger? I don’t think there’s any need to be so condescending. He’s not forcing you to attend. And anything that can focus even one person’s mind is surely a good thing, no? Now go in peace my son and remember, no more impure thoughts. 2 Hail Mary’s and 3 Our Father’s should do the job. Yours ecumenically, Father Tony Curran CC.
@Anthony Curran: This is novel. The other day, you said that me calling you Fr. Tony implied you were a paedophile, and you said you reported the comment. Now it’s what harm and all the lolz. You’re an odd fellow.
@honey badger: I’ve forgiven you honey. It’s the Christian way. Now go in peace my son.
@Anthony Curran: Are you still content to overlook paedophiles in your political party, which was why i called you Fr Tony in the first instance, Fr Tony?
@Anthony Curran: you keep taking those Deludamol tablets they seem to be working a treat.
@honey badger: I don’t overlook any paedophiles honey. You’re the one who implies I do. Child abuse is a heinous crime, wouldn’t you agree? But you seem to like making it party political, honey. Now that wouldn’t be anything to do with your dislike of Sinn Féin, would it honey? Ps if only you cared as much about the 17,000 little children who’ve been slaughtered by your Israeli friends. Then I and many others might take you seriously.
@Anthony Curran: Anthony & all the rest of ye f##k off. Bis Hop only doing his job for which he gets free everything & a good few €.
@Anthony Curran: Laughable, maybe you could talk to the Paedophiles in your Party about their impure thoughts. You are the classic SF flip flopper, Brits out, everyone else from around the world in, hate the Catholic church one post & defending them the next post, defending the Gardai one post & against the Free State in the next post. Maybe make up your mind who you are & what you are & you might get some respect.
@Anthony Curran: Of course. That’s why your refusal to condemn the party covering up and excusing child abuse/ protection issues struck me as being very similar to that which our own Catholic church has done for years. (Hence, calling you Fr Tony) It’s only party political, because it was your party doing the covering up and in this instance moving their senator into another jurisdiction with a sob story and their dishonesty around their press officer who was thankfully jailed.
Hamas, as the government of Gaza, started the war. Hamas, as the government of Gaza can stop the war they’ve brought on their people by surrendering and releasing the hostages. It could happen today. You and other “pro palestinians” should be screaming for it. Surprised ye don’t tbh.
@honey badger: I recall a former councillor that was arrested for not only having indecent images of children on his hard-drive but also engaging in human traffickng, those in glass houses, not to mention the church being allowed to get away with sexual, physical and emotional abuse because politicians ignored it. One member of Sinn Féin engaged in paedophilia, the Senator did not engage in grooming or sexual messages so you’d want to take a long look at your parties involvement in paedophilia before calling anyone else a paedophile.
@honey badger: You’re an apologist for genocide. More children blown to pieces today by your friends in Israel. Another school bombed. Hamas may be c.u.n.t.s but they’re in the halfpenny place compared to the genocidal Netanyahu regime.
@honey badger: it was for all there lot ,that abused children to get out of town safely
Once again, comments open, concerning the Catholic Church, so anti Catholic bigots can gather and vent, enjoy
@Peter Igloo: Once again, multi-ID troll, making phoney comments, and using too many, commas, please stop
@Brendan O’Brien: you are deranged
@Peter Igloo: dyed in the wool atheist here but at least they’re using their platform to call out the issue.
@Peter Igloo: I’ve known 2 priests who were incredible individuals. Thoughtful, kind, erudite, and very interesting to talk with. Their institution is a disgrace, though.
@honey badger: but you wouldn’t tar those2 priests with the same brush, people like to generalise, that bit too much
@Peter Igloo: Many people in Ireland dislike Catholicism and the Catholic Church for reasons that really shouldn’t need explaining. This is not the same thing as hating Catholics as individuals. Or as a wise man once put it, Don’t hate the playas – hate the game!
@Peter Igloo: I see you’re making phoney comments on the LA fires also, with a new fake ID (‘REAL Kevyy Kerr’!!!!) and your ‘Chutes [toxic word]‘ one. But I’m the one who’s deranged?
@Brendan O’Brien: it’s OK, to be not OK
@Brendan O’Brien: it was sick…… unbelievably vile what you posted on that article about the devastation and loss of life in LA, you really reached a new floor
@Tired Jim: insert the multiple spiderman meme here. How many troll accounts do you actually have?
@Peter Igloo: 100% agree with you.
@Tired Jim: I see you are not denying running multiple trolling accounts.
@Peter Igloo: you’ve a neck calling anyone deranged lmao eejit godbotherer.
@Tired Jim: second opportunity given to deny running multiple trolling accounts and you didn’t take it. Noted. Are you going to deny it? Third time of asking.
@Peter Igloo:
True,let’s have open comments on Israel,see how that works out!
@Franno: last count, including previous and current IDs, he has 17.Thats according to what he said himself a few weeks back
@Dermot Blaine: can we maybe get a list and just warn people when he posts not to feed this troll
@Peter Igloo: What’s wrong with people giving out about the church? Don’t forget that the church used to take babies from their mothers and in some cases starved them to death and others children were buggered by priests and Christian brothers and what did the church do …. sent these evil men all over the world to continue what they were doing. Absolutely disgusting and shameful.
@Franno: a couple of Doe accounts, tired Joe, Chutes, Buster Lawless, Trump 24, off the You can recognise him by his vocabulary and phraseology, both of which are very limited and repeditave. He doesn’t have the smarts to vary these. He also hijjacks the IDs of other users. He’s just an annoying pest.
@Dermot Blaine: Five consecutive comments in five different profiles in this thread from the site troll.
@Peter Igloo: it’s not anti Catholic church it’s anti child abuse opps same thing
@Franno: Peter Igloo / Meatball martin / David /Liam Boyne / Mrs o Brien / Fester and anal / Mister Cock / Paul Mooney / Alan Power / Tired jim / Paul m doe / fintan pox / peter mann / john doe / john m doe / john p doe / dave d doe / ulysses / exhausted jim / tired jim / hot jim / john jon / lefty tears / lefty cries and dozens more troll accounts . Read any of their posts and you will see the quality of his comments, he has never added anything constructive or of any merit to any conversation on this platform. He has been banned on many occasions
The government, especially Eamon ryan are to blame for a good lot of these by refusing to upgrade bad roads especially in the northwest of the country. The country a wash with money and all they do is waste it on bike sheds, security huts and the black hole that is the children’s hospital. Also never see Garda on the roads, just the private company operating speed vans.
@Tony: Tony, I’m regularly up in Donegal and without wanting to label a county, it has by far the worst drivers in the country, hands down. Speeding, sitting on your back bumper like a maniac, overtaking on bends, overtaking of 3, 4, 5, 6 cars in one go, I’ve even been undertaken on the hard shoulder. It’s true what you say about the condition of some roads in Donegal and the lack of investment, but people need to drive safely. And Donegal seems to have a massive issue where road safety is concerned.
@Anthony Curran: it’s unfortunate to say but I agree fully with you. I’m often in Donegal with work (HGV driver), a couple of times a week at all different times of the day, the driver (not all) behaviour of people from all ages and sexes is absolutely appalling. The manouvers some drivers pull is unbelievable, happens all over the country but Donegal is especially bad. Drivers playing chicken with a 46 tonne truck while trying to overtake multiple cars at a time is not going to end well, drivers also overtaking said truck with not enough space and then having to jam on their brakes to not hit the car in front of them while thinking an artic truck can just slow and stop in a few metres like their car. Hate going up there.
@Anthony Curran: some drivers driving too slow causing tail backs are a big problem too. A bit of consideration might save a life.
@r k: Maybe plan for a few minutes extra time when driving somewhere and relax a bit while driving?
The traffic on our roads has increased dramatically in the last ten odd years. Also people are commuting longer distances, people are working 5 / 6 days a week and doing 200 odd km a day that alone would make you tired never mind a full days work , family time and the worry of the cost of living.
Also we have many new comers whom have different driving habits and skills.
@Be Lucky: speeding is a major killer, and nobody is to blame for speeding, only the fool behind the wheel
@Be Lucky: the roads are fine, it’s the fools driving on them, is the problem
@Be Lucky: What about the Demon Drink and Drugs
@Be Lucky: Exactly. Common sense would deduce that more people on the roads for longer ,with varying driving skills ( don’t forget learners waiting months for a test), would relate to the number of accidents.
And don’t forget, every single driver’s behaviour impacts those around him/her. Sometimes, the worst offenders for accidents are those who witness the destruction in their rear -view mirrors.
Years ago, there was a TV ad campaign: ‘Wear something white at night’. Even that made a difference. With hi-viz available nowadays, we really need a new campaign as it’s nigh-on impossible to see pedestrians and e-bike riders (dressed in black more often than not). It’s such a simple precaution and would surely save lives
@Patricia Cautley: lmao, we need ANOTHER campaign?? That is 100% what we don’t need. We need our elected officials to build a country that serves the people. Pathetic, lazy Irish, ‘no we cant’ attitude needs to be wiped out.
I always wonder how many single vehicle, single occupant collisions are actually suicides.
@Soundy Sound: We continue to wonder what is actually causing these deaths, in favour of guess work.
Failure is mostly on speeding idiọts.
@Kieran Menon: It’s not always speeding though. There’s plenty of accidents caused by not paying attention to the road, whether that be texting, changing a radio station, tiredness etc.
Compare an accident caused by inattention at 80kmph to an accident caused by inattention at 120kmph, for example. Speed is a factor in literally every accident! The higher the speed, the greater the carnage. It’s that simple.
Speed, in itself, doesn’t cause any accidents, something else had to go wrong.
Unless you know the circumstances for all the accidents that happen then everything is guess work. old people are nearly the highest percentage of (subjective) grouping in terms of age, do you really think it’s because of speeding? I can only speak from experience, where I live West Wicklow, most of the daily roads cannot facilitate 2 cars passing, let alone the HGVs that need to pass daily, the agri industry, deliveries, horses, cyclists, runners, walkers, people walking prams… it’s pathetic how we’ve igroned our infrastructure for so many decade, damming of lazy Irish ‘small nation’ cant do it mantra.
What about the Rays views on drink driving
The Bertie Kissers are now making them Super Junior Ministers
Father Ted stuff.at it’s best
@David Murray: I once asked a barman in a well known Kerry pub if my car would be ok in the carpark overnight. His reply was “how many have you had?”. When I said 4 he laughed and said why wouldn’t you just drive back to your hotel. And this wasn’t 20 years ago either. It was very recently. But I suppose when you have your local TDs saying yerra tis grand, what do you expect!!
@David Murray: While its abhorrent is drink-driving the main cause of road deaths? I seriously doubt it. We can bless the roads all we like, ultimately us Irish have proven over and over that we are unable to deal with our problems.
Let the sneering fest begin.
@Longlin: yeah, how could any rational person look at that photograph and not chuckle. Camp as knickers. Fr Ted was a documentary.
You couldn’t make this up. Look at the state of them. How did we ever believe these guys for so long?
@Derek Moran: Fishing is good in Howth at the moment.
Look at the stats.
Donegal always top of the tree for decades, worst roads in Ireland.
Dublin ,the biggest population by so naturally more fatalities.
Then the usual suspects, motorbikes,young drivers,pedestrians late at night.
It has been the same stats every year, surely it can’t be hard to target these and get numbers down.
@Rory Burns: let’s just hope Healy Rae is not involved in anything to do with road safety if he gets a ministry
Don’t get’me wrong, love them or hate them or anything in between, the message to drive safely is a good one. However, I couldn’t help asking myself if the second part of the headline should have read, “as priest admits blessings do SFA”.
@David Stapleton: Linking behaviour to things beyond the personal has additional weight. “Drive carefully for the sake of of others”
@David Stapleton: the message is right, the execution is self righteous and morbid in classic rcc fashion. A creepy pageant on the roads and ineffective too
They should keep their delusions to themselves.
Nearly 47,000 deaths in Gaza of mostly innocent women and chldren.
Anyone want to decry them ….?
The Catholic clerics correctly refer to failures of policy and irresponsible driver behaviour. But then they engage in a primaeval, superstitous ritual, which is inefficacious and utterly futile. As Ted ( himself a priest of sorts !) said when Dougal was stuck on a milk float with a bomb on it : will somebody come up with a practical solution instead of pointlessly saying more masses! He stumbled upon it himself – the humble brick!!
Some totally crazy comments here. It’s fun to read them on this otherwise dreary day.
War causes more war. What was the bloodiest war in history?
World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians.
Many Motorists cyclists pedestrians are stone mad no rules no penalties no horror videos adverts will stop lunatics.
@Tim Brennan: and yet they rarely kill anyone. Careless motorists are the problem not a cyclist breaking a red light, probably in an effort not to get mown down by motorists who don’t give a toss. Drivers speeding, texting and flying through red lights without any consequences are to blame for almost all accidents. Cop on
@Jonny Hellzapoppin: Cop on says the guy saying that cyclists breaking red lights aren’t a problem. The rules of the road are there for everyone, not for some to nitpick. And while we’re on the topic of cycling, if you cycle a bike in darkness with no lights, no helmet and no reflector jacket, you’re a selfish so-and-so. Have some respect for drivers who obey the rules of the road and may have to live with the consequences of your selfishness.
@Anthony Curran: a spate of hit and runs lately, cameras being put on traffic lights as there is a spate of drivers ignoring them, leading to fatalities. Yes cyclists like all road users have responsibility but the people causing the fatalities are overwhelmingly drivers and driver neglugence
Could he not just do a general blessing that would cover all the roads in Ireland? He’d probably have to stand in the dead centre of Ireland so that he didn’t unintentionally turn a big slice of the Atlantic into holy water, which would destroy the profitability of Knock.
Let’s have it formally renamed as ‘yebra’ cross dressing blessing .. since they are cross dressers, blessing for their cross & we all need a laugh in January
It’s not roads that cause driving deaths, it’s drivers. You can’t sprinkle salted water on every driver in Ireland, north or south. Nor can you ‘bless’ every road in Ireland, north or south. This bishop is no more effective in reducing road death numbers than King Canute would be in commanding a tsunami to dissipate before reaching land. Regrettably, there will always be deaths on our roads. All we can do is try to get more drivers to drive more carefully, so as to reduce the overall numbers of deaths as far as we can.
have your say