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Funeral notice for M9 crash victim, 15, removed after wave of abuse

Joe Carthy was just 15 when he was killed with four friends as the BMW he was travelling in was driven the wrong way down Ireland's M9 motorway at 74mph, colliding with a Hyundai and injuring a family

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Joe Carthy was the youngest teenager killed in the crash(Image: Irish Mirror)

A wave of abuse has forced the removal of the funeral notice published for one of the teenagers killed in the wrong-way M9 crash.

Ireland has been shocked by the tragedy which claimed the lives of five teenagers and seriously hurt a family-of-four, including a seven-year-old boy on Sunday. The horror smash on the M9 occurred when the teenagers drove a BMW on the wrong side of the motorway at more than 74mph and collided with the family's Hyundai, as they t ravelled to Dublin airport to fly to the UK for a wedding.

Grieving families published tributes to the five teens, and a funeral notice for Joe Carthy, 15. However, it has since emerged his funeral notice, published on RIP.ie , has been removed after a flood of angry and abusive comments appeared in its online condolences section, the Irish Mirror reports.

It is understood that the death notice was removed due to an influx of negative and abusive comments in the condolences section where people expressed their anger about the circumstances in which the group of teens drove the BMW the wrong way down the M9 motorway.

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Suitcases by one of the vehicles at the scene on the M9 northbound at Junction 3 in Co Kildare, where a number of people have died and others have been seriously injured after a head-on collision between two cars. A Gardai spokesperson said the incident on Sunday morning at 3am occurred when one of the cars was travelling in the wrong direction. Picture date: Sunday August 16, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Gardai said the car was driven in excess of 74mph on the wrong side of the rural motorway. Videos have emerged captioned last spin boys which reportedly show the teens driving a BMW on a main road.

The other four teenagers who died, Kamil Pustkowski, 17, from Limerick; Jack Kennedy, 17, from Athy; Jeremy OBrien, 18, from Carlow; and Alex McCarthy, 17, also from Carlow, have not yet had funeral notices published. Tributes have been paid to some members of the group.

[The five teenagers who died were in a car that had been bought five days earlier.]

The five teenagers who died were in a car that had been bought five days earlier.

The Irish TImes has reported that RIP.ie, which is owned by The Irish Times Group, said it did not comment on individual funeral notices.

Undertaker Joe Rigney, of Rigney's Funeral Directors, declined to comment on the removal of the notice, the Irish Times reports.

Gardai also confirmed on Tuesday they no longer believed the car had been stolen from Athy. Detectives said it was purchased legitimately by an associate of the teenagers a week earlier for 1,100 (940).

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