Fundraiser for three sisters injured in M9 crash passes 200k

The GoFundMe has been set up by Brian Curley, a friend of the youngest sister Ella Hendrickson.

"This has been an incredibly difficult and frightening time for Ella, Niamh, Alma and their family. They are facing a long and challenging road ahead, and right now, I ask that you keep them all in your thoughts & prayers. All funds going directly to the family," the site message says.

Niamh and Alma Kinsella, who are in their 30s, are in a critical condition after their car collided with a group of teenagers who were driving the wrong way down the motorway in Co Kildare on Sunday.

Their younger sister Ella Hendricken, who is in her 20s, was also seriously injured in the crash along with her seven year old nephew when their Hyundai was hit at a speed of more than 120km/h.

Niamh and Alma are understood to have been in the front of the vehicle while the boy and Ella were in the back of the car near Moone shortly before 3am when they were hit.

Ella had been working as a social worker in Carlow, while Niamh is reportedly a PE teacher at a local school.

Postmortems have be carried out throughout the week on the bodies of Joey Carthy (15) and Jack Kennedy (17) from Athy, Co Kildare; Alex McCarthy (17) and his cousin Jeremy O’Brien (18) from Carlow; and Kamil Pustkowski (17) from Limerick.

It's understood some of the boys are from the Traveller community and charity Pavee Point have been forced to release a statement condemning the online abuse of the teenagers, after the online funeral details of Joey McCarthy had to be removed due to online abuse.

"Following the tragedy that took place on the M9 in Co Kildare on Sunday morning, Pavee Point wishes to extend our deepest sympathies to all those involved, to their families, their friends and the wider community," a statement said.

We extend our prayers and thoughts to those who lost their lives and to those who are in hospital with very serious injuries from this senseless tragedy. Our thoughts are also with the first responders who bravely responded to the scene.

The devastation of Sunday, and other tragedies on Irish roads, urges us all to be more responsible.

We are very concerned about the lack of proactive responses from social media platforms in monitoring harmful content which, in this instance, only glorifies harmful behaviour.

We are equally concerned about social media commentary focusing on ethnicity which only serves to stoke vile anti-Traveller racism."