A well-known hotelier and GAA figure has died in a car crash in Co Galway.
Eoin Burke (53) was killed in the single-vehicle collision at 1.30pm on Saturday at Carrick East, Cornamona, Co Galway.
Mr Burke died at the scene and his body was taken to University Hospital Galway for a postmortem.
Mr Burke and his family own Peacockes Hotel in Maam Cross in Connemara. They reopened the hotel in July 2014. They also own the adjacent mart and other businesses in the locality.
He was also a former player and chairman of the Clonbur GAA club. A statement on the club’s Facebook page said they were “all devastated and deeply saddened to hear of the death of our friend and colleague Eoin Burke”.
He played senior football with the club where he lined out at corner back in the 1983 senior county final.
As chairman he did, the club said, “outstanding work and also held other positions on the executive of the club over the years”.
“Tí Bhúrca and the Burke family have always and continue to be the club’s main sponsor and our deepest sympathies and our prayers are with his wife Bríd, his children Hannah, Paddy, Mairéad and Jean, his parents Ciaran and Cha, his brothers Tomas, Gearóid, Colm, his sisters Adrienne and Anna and all his extended family. We all have lost a friend.”
Mr Burke’s funeral Mass will take place at St Patrick’s Church in Clonbur at 12pm on Wednesday.
His death was the second fatality on the country’s roads this weekend. A woman in her 70s was also killed after the car she was driving crashed on the M7 motorway near Nenagh, Co Tipperary, early on Saturday.
The crash happened between junction 24 and junction 23 northbound at about 7am. A Garda spokesman said it is believed the woman, who was alone at the time, crashed into a barrier. There were no other vehicles involved. The motorway was closed for a Garda forensic collision investigation and diversions were put in place.