'Shining angel' – Tributes to Irish teen, 17, who died when car flipped into ditch
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'Shining angel' – Tributes to Irish teen, 17, who died when car flipped into ditch

TRIBUTES have been paid to a teenager who lost his life in a horror road crash in Co. Limerick yesterday.

Gearóid Sheehy, 17, died when the car he was travelling in entered a ditch before flipping over into a field in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Three other occupants of the black 05-D-registered Mazda were injured in the incident on Roxboro Road in Tubberyquinn, Ballyneety shortly after midnight.

Tragic Gearóid was pronounced dead at the scene before he could be transferred to University Hospital Limerick (UHL).

The driver of the car, a teenager originally from the Middle East, was found by Gardaí lying in a field a short distance away from the wrecked vehicle.

He was taken along with the two other injured youngsters to UHL for treatment.

Gardaí and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) have launched two separate investigations, due to an "earlier interaction" between the car and officers.

The details of that earlier interaction are yet to be confirmed.

Local councillor and pub owner Jerry O’Dea, who knows Gearóid’s mum Elizabeth, described the teen as a “wonderful, quiet young man”.

“She [Gearoid’s mother] would call to the pub occasionally with friends and family and also sometimes Gearoid would come with her," he told local paper the Limerick Leader.

"All I can say is that he was a wonderful, quiet young man. Our thoughts and condolences go out to everybody, because we were so shocked to hear what happened."

Tributes were pouring in for the late teenager on social media today. One friend wrote:  “I hope you get the best bed up there, sun is shining angel."

Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced but Gearóid's body will lie in repose at Cross’ Funeral Home on Gerald Griffin Street in Limerick city.