Young lives held so much potential

Tragedies at Christmas always cut a little deeper, and the deaths of three young men on their way home in the early hours of Monday will have made each of us hug our loved ones a little tighter.

We’ve all been there, enjoying the craic of a night out at Christmas. It’s a chance to catch up with old friends and chat about the year we’re getting ready to put to bed.

It would have been no different for Nathan Corrigan, Peter Finnegan, and Peter McNamee as they laughed and joked into the wee small hours.

These were three young men with so much to offer to society and so much joy to bring to their families, but a few moments on a dark road at Garvaghey brought all that potential to a devastating end. Happening on a stretch of the treacherous A5, Monday’s tragedy saw the tally of lives claimed by this road rise again. This is a road which should have been upgraded over a decade ago. It was first proposed in 2007, and yet almost 15 years later, no progress has been made. A combination of funding issues, legal challenges and environmental concerns have delayed work on the road time and time again. More than £80million has already been spent on the scheme, despite work never having started. And while that waste of money is to be lamented, it is nothing compared to the lives which have been lost by failing to progress this scheme.

For the families of Nathan Corrigan, Peter Finnegan, and Peter McNamee, it’s too late. They will never know what each of these young men could have achieved, or the hearts they could have touched, if their lives had not been cut so tragically short.

Our government and civil servants have repeatedly failed to deliver this scheme; their actions allowing this highly dangerous road to remain in use by thousands of us on a daily basis – and it is just not good enough.