Ryan had been hoping to come home for Xmas

Ryan had been hoping to come home for Xmas

21 November 2012

THE 25 year-old Leitrim man who died in a traffic accident in Australia on Monday morning had been planning to return home for Christmas.

As the Leitrim community at home and abroad surrounded Ryan’s family after his tragic death, local parish priest Fr. Peter McNeill, revealed a Christmas family reunion had been planned.

Ryan died after being injured by a taxi in which he had been returning home following a night out with friends.

A 26 year-old taxi driver has been charged with dangerous driving occasioning his death, failing to stop and render assistance and failing to report an accident.

Although details of the incident are not yet clear, it is believed the driver had picked up Ryan and a friend and taken them on a short journey before there was a dispute over their fare. Ryan was injured while leaving the taxi.

Fr. McNeill said after the accident many young men and women from the Leitrim and Castlewellan expatriate community in Perth travelled to the hospital to support Ryan’s brothers, Ronan and Kevin. The three young tradesmen had moved to Western Australia in recent years to find work due to the downturn in the building trade at home.

Fr. McNeill said the close group of friends, some of whom who had socialised with Ryan earlier that night, left the hospital to attend mass together in honour of Ryan and he said he had no doubt they would remain a vital support to the Doyle brothers as arrangements are made for the repatriation of Ryan’s body, which is expected next week.

“Ryan and his brothers have created a community of neighbours and friends from home who have been with them in Perth since Ryan died and indeed had been with them on the night of his death,” he said.

The Leitrim community has also gathered around Ryan’s family at home where his devastated parents Jeanette and Willie, sister Claire, brother Kieran and grandparents are struggling with news of his death.

There will be a mass in the local church tonight in Ryan’s memory, which Fr. McNeill said was needed by the community, which wanted to come together to grieve and to support Ryan’s family.

Fr. McNeill said Ryan was one of dozens of young men and women from the community who had joined an exodus to Australia in recent years due to the continuing recession and rising unemployment.

He said the names of these young people, including Ryan, were written in a book in the Immaculate Conception Church and were regularly prayed for by parishioners. Each year before Christmas there is a special mass for these young emigrants and Fr. McNeill said Ryan’s parents had attended the mass last year before returning home to find Ryan there as a festive surprise.

He said Ryan had planned a similar visit this year.

Ryan, who was a bricklayer by trade, left Leitrim for Perth in the spring of 2009.

Last year, his mother, Jeanette, spoke movingly to the Down Recorder about her sorrow following the emigration of her three sons due to the economic downturn and of her hope that her family would one day be properly reunited.

Mrs. Doyle paid an emotional tribute to Ryan, Ronan and Kevin at that time, admitting she had struggled to adapt to a quieter house with the emigration of three out of five of her children.

But despite her own sorrow at their departure, she said she recognised the opportunities they had in Australia and knew they were doing well for themselves compared to the difficulties they had experienced securing work at home.

“I think the difficulty with Australia is that, despite everything, it is still so far away,” she said.

“I hope they do come back of course.

“It is sad to think that our family would most likely have been together still if the recession was not as prolonged. I still miss seeing five vehicles parked in the driveway when I come home.”