Dunmanway's Eoin McCarthy (22) lost his life in a forest rally in Castleisland in 2022. Motorsport Ireland have still to explain what actually happened on that fateful day

WEATHER conditions define and impact so many things. Amongst them, how we live our daily lives. The impact of storms are even more profound.

For the McCarthy family from Kildee near Dunmanway, the effects of a storm in February 2022 have torn their lives apart.

On the third Sunday in February 2022, Eoin McCarthy (22) lost his life following an accident during the fourth stage of the Killarney Forest Rally that was based in Castleisland, Co Kerry.

The McCarthys are a well-known and popular rally family and Eoin (22) was competing in his first gravel rally, having made his debut in the sport in the Junior category of the Cork '20' International Rally the previous September.

On that occasion, he was co-driven by his brother Conor, both following in the footsteps of their father Liam – a winner of the West Cork Rally and the Fastnet Rally. Across the county bounds in Castleisland, Daniel O'Brien from Dripsey was Eoin's co-driver; it was his first rally.

Like any family hit by a tragedy, Liam, his wife Nora and Eoin's siblings Conor and Rachel are trying to rebuild their lives, but it's tough and the reason is that, over four years and four months later, they have so many questions that remain unanswered.

As part of the motorsport review for 2023, Liam told The Southern Star ‘You cope with it (Eoin's death) every day, you have to move on but it’s an empty house. It’s (thinking about Eoin) the last thing at night and the first thing in the morning.’

Nothing has changed since. In fact, just even listening to Liam and Nora, it's as if they have been forgotten about. What they are going through is heart-wrenching.

Time can sometimes move slowly, or so it would appear. Other times not so.

The late Eoin McCarthy.

Next August, from the 11th to the 13th to be precise, three days have been set aside for Eoin McCarthy's inquest. The family has waited so long for answers to some basic and understandable questions, but why the wait? It has magnified their grief beyond belief.

Back to that Sunday morning in Castleisland. Even before the tragedy, the weather conditions were one of the worst, if not the worst I have ever experienced at any rally. Some competitors wondered if the rally would go ahead. Storm Eunice had battered the south-west coast on the previous Friday, turning some streams into rivers.

Eoin and his co-driver Daniel O'Brien from Dripsey had managed to get their Honda Civic to the end of the first loop of three stages and back to the service park in Castleisland. At the service park, they chatted with Liam and Conor, with Eoin relaying to them that the ruts and potholes were challenging for his Honda. Gravel rallying is totally different to driving on tarmac surfaces. All the usual checks ensured everything was okay for the repeat loop. The car was re-fuelled and Eoin and Daniel made their way out to SS4, Mount Eagle. Conor subsequently made his way back home. Liam's parting words to the lads was simple: ‘Mind yourselves, just bring it home.’

With competing cars starting at one-minute intervals, Eoin and Daniel were due to start SS4 at 14.04. Within a few minutes, their red Honda Civic had slid off on an unprotected bridge, albeit at slow speed, ending up on its roof in what had become a swollen river because of Storm Eunice that was then some four feet deep.

Co-driver Daniel O'Brien pressed the SOS button on the tracking mechanism (at 14.07) in the car that alerted those involved monitoring the tracking system back in the control room at rally headquarters in Castleisland.

A co-driver in one of the cars that had arrived at the scene some four minutes after the accident ran back the stage – for approximately a quarter of a mile – to get phone coverage to call the stage commander Declan O'Leary to make him aware of the severity of the accident.

Back at the service park Liam’s phone rang. It was Conor, who told him that Eoin had been involved in a serious accident.

The general rally community is close knit. People know people. News travels fast. Conor himself had been informed of the situation by fellow West Cork man Sean Hayes, who was marshalling at the rally near the accident location.

The McCarthys have yet to be told – another of their questions – how long it took from the time Daniel O'Brien pressed the SOS button in the car to when the emergency services were released to go to the scene of the accident.

Meanwhile, Liam asked rally preparation expert Ballyvourney's Colm Grant, who was in the service park, to make enquiries at rally headquarters. Grant confirmed to him that there had been an accident but he was informed that it involved another person with the same name, albeit with the first name spelt differently, but that it wasn't Liam's son.

But Liam was still worried. He received another call from Conor asking had he (Liam) gone to the accident scene. Liam was unaware of the similar names competing in the rally.

Moving up through the hierarchy, Colm Grant was eventually told that yes, it was Eoin McCarthy, Liam's son. One of the McCarthy's questions is why did that process take so long as the tracking system would have provided such information?

Liam was then told that Eoin was in an ambulance that was on its way to Mountcollins where the air ambulance was to transfer Eoin to the Cork University Hospital. Liam arrived at the GAA pitch in Mountcollins on the Limerick/Kerry borders. Within 15 minutes, three ambulances arrived as locals wondered what had broken their peaceful afternoon in south-west Limerick.

Then, Liam was shocked to hear one of the drivers tell him that they were in the wrong place.

‘We have to go to Brosna GAA field.’

It was a 5.5km journey or six-minute drive by car. Liam followed the three ambulances. They arrived in Brosna, waited for five minutes and were told they were still in the wrong place. Eventually and after some 50 minutes, they connected with the air ambulance – in a farmer's field – not far from the scene of the tragedy.

There and as Eoin was being taken in a stretcher to the helicopter, Dr Fiona Kelly, the chief medical officer (CMO) for the rally, informed Liam that Eoin had been stabilised. During the transfer Liam saw Eoin.

‘His hand was warm, but he wasn't responding.’

Meanwhile, Nora, Conor and Rachel had made their way to the Cork University Hospital. At 4.45pm, the air ambulance landed at the Cork University Hospital – two hours and 48 minutes later – prompting another unanswered and very obvious question.

At 9.52pm, Eoin was pronounced dead.

Eoin McCarthy.

Nobody from Motorsport Ireland had enquired or journeyed to the Cork University Hospital that afternoon to ask the McCarthys about Eoin. Not even a phone call.

Meanwhile, Daniel O'Brien had been transferred to Tralee General Hospital. He was there on his own, without his phone. Again, nobody from Motorsport Ireland made contact with him or his family during that afternoon.

Eoin's removal from O'Sullivan's funeral home in Clonakilty was flanked by guards of honour from the rallying fraternity along with his work colleagues at Wesco, Kilmeen and Kilbree GAA and Dunmanway RFC – sporting organisations where Eoin was hugely popular. He had that aura. He simply loved sport.

Following his requiem mass and burial in Rossmore, people gathered in Tot’s Pub in Ballygurteen, a favourite spot of Eoin's and one where Eoin celebrated his father's inaugural West Cork Rally victory in 2009.

During the afternoon as people reminisced about Eoin's life that was so cruelly cut short, Aiden Harper, the president of Motorsport Ireland, spoke to Liam, who was accompanied by his long-time co-driver and great friend, Kieran Murphy.

‘We went into the snug, it was private and quieter. Aiden sympathised with us and said anything you want from me, I am at the other end of the phone. He gave Kieran his number.’

Months later, Kieran made some calls (to Aiden Harper), left some messages but didn't get any response.

‘Kieran then contacted Paul Browne of the Munster Car Club, whom he knew and who knew Aiden Harper. Eventually, Paul made contact and said that Aiden Harper would meet us, but the meeting never happened,’ Liam said.

Since the tragedy, Aiden Harper has been present at the West Cork Rally, including as Safety Delegate for the West Cork Rally last March. He was in Clonakilty a few times, but never made contact with the McCarthy family.

It's not a long journey from Clonakilty town centre to the McCarthy's family home in Kildee. Had he done so, even some four years on, Liam says, ‘It would have been a very easy resolution to everything if he did. It leaves a lot of unanswered questions now.’

Nora, too, is shocked and saddened by Motorsport Ireland's lack of communication and engagement.

‘That they thought so little of us and the situation it's as if they couldn't be bothered talking to us. We wouldn't have gone any further, we would have accepted what they said really.’

The McCarthy's lives seemed frozen in time. As Liam tried to make sense of it all, he decided to visit the accident scene.

‘I was shocked really, at how dangerous the location was, especially with no protection on the left-hand side of the concrete bridge (where the car slid off). There was a railing on the right side that was bent over at 45 degrees,’ he said.

Given his rallying experience, Liam McCarthy couldn't believe that so many senior officials had passed the location and not seen the potential dangers, especially with a drop of around six feet and then the water.

Apparently, a marshal had expressed concerns prior to the start of the rally that were to have been relayed to a senior official. In addition, the lack of 087 mobile phone coverage was also highlighted.

Liam was even more astounded by the report on the fatality by a Motorsport Ireland official.

‘I was shocked when I read it. Its third page said “This was an unfortunate accident that happened despite extensive safety planning for this event.” The report added, “I do not believe that there are any extra precautions that could have been taken that may have prevented the accident happening.”’

Liam was aghast with the comments.

In early summer of 2022, a conversation Liam had with Drimoleague native and former rally driver Frank O'Mahony revealed an astonishing omission.

O'Mahony, who was a former chairperson of the Rallies Committee (now Rallies Commission) and a former head of the MI Safety Committee for rallying, is well-versed in procedural matters. He asked Liam McCarthy if the family had received the insurance compensation that was due to them in the circumstances.

The McCarthys had no knowledge of this, nor had they received any information from Motorsport Ireland.

Through their legal representatives, Liam and Nora contacted Motorsport Ireland's insurers with a written request to furnish the details of the competitor Personal Accident Policy, noting that ‘not one person or member of your clients federation (Motorsport Ireland) made any effort or attempt to notify our clients of the existence of this policy or to help them make an application under the policy.’

The McCarthys were disappointed with the response.

‘It was a cold letter. It was if it was written to Eoin and that he would have known about the insurance. I thought it (the letter) was very insensitive,’ Nora said. How and why Motorsport Ireland have taken this approach left the McCarthys wondering about the sense of priorities.

Nothing will ever bring Eoin McCarthy back or lessen his loss, particularly to his family and friends. Everyone knows what the McCarthy family have been and continue to go through in terms of Eoin's tragic death.

Few, however, know what they have endured over the last four years and four months in trying to get answers. They have kept that private until recently.

It's nothing to do with compensation. It never was. It all could and should have been over long ago. Maybe they will get the answers to all their questions at the inquest next August. They deserve that at the very least.

Motorsport Ireland president Aiden Harper, when asked to comment as to why Kieran Murphy’s phone calls went unanswered or why he (Mr. Harper) didn’t meet the McCarthy family as promised, he said, ‘I don’t believe, and this is honestly speaking, that I missed any calls from that man (Kieran Murphy) because if I did, I would have certainly called back. I did say I would do anything, as I always do in these circumstances, anything that we could do, please, we’ll be in contact.’

 On meeting the McCarthy family, Mr Harper added, ‘That meeting was to happen, it just didn’t happen. I actually can’t think back now why, because it’s a couple of years ago, but there was no unreasonable reason why it didn’t happen. It just didn’t materialise. And again, I’d have no bother meeting the family. I’ve done it with other families. I’d have no issue whatsoever. But I genuinely do not understand why the meeting didn’t happen. And that’s being genuine.’