RTÉ star issues appeal over hit-and-run which killed her cousin 30 years ago
Louise Walsh
School friends will meet this weekend to remember a dear friend who was killed in an unsolved hit-and-run incident 30 years ago, as an RTÉ star reissues her appeal for information into the death of her cousin.
18-year-old Páraic Coffey was left to die on a country road in Co Meath in a case that has remained a mystery, despite numerous garda appeals over three decades - and left a heartbroken family without any answers or closure.
The fifth-year student was walking from a disco in Athboy to his home in the close-knit Gaeltacht community of Rathcairn at about 3am on June 9th, 1996, when he was struck by a car. The vehicle was never found.
Many leads were followed by gardaí and endless appeals by family to find his killer failed to yield any answers for his parents Patrick and Judy and siblings Gerard, Sean, Caitriona, and Cormac who have resolved never to give up looking for justice for their brother.
Family members who have made an appeal for information include his Páraic's cousin and well-known RTÉ presenter Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh who said she will never forget her sister screeching on hearing the news that her cousin had died.
"I'll never forget that 5am phone call. My sister Máire was staying with myself and my husband at the time and I'll never forget her screeching," she said in recent years.
"All the cousins were very close and we all played with each other growing up. When we came back to Meath from Canada and Judy and Patrick came back from England, we all lived near each other in Trim.
"I remember not understanding what had happened, even though I was an adult, until he was laid out in the coffin and touching his hand, it felt so fragile. There was a strange eeriness because we didn't know any young people who had died before.
"It was a horrific time. I can still hear Judy crying and the silence from Patrick. He didn't speak. He couldn't. It was really awful.
"The local road he was killed on was always used by young people to walk home from nights out in Athboy. I often walked it with friends and the lads thought nothing of walking home on it by themselves.
"I remain optimistic. I keep thinking anytime now, any day now, someone will walk into a garda station with information. Someone out there must be suffering with the weight of this secret on their shoulders."
Now school friends will meet up in Athboy on Saturday to remember their friend who lives on in all their memories.
"There will be about 15 of us meeting to remember him," said Gary Costello.
"I was driving to work on his anniversary and I just veered left instead of right and headed down the road where he passed away to pay my respects at the spot where he died.
"I just text a few people and within minutes, the phone was lighting up with former school mates with memories so we wanted to meet up to share them all again.
"It's 30 years but the memories are still as vivid today. Páraic was the kind of guy that everyone loved and knew and if you didn't know him, you wanted to get to know him. HIs presence would light up a room and his personality was infectious. Everyone has stories to tell about him - even the teachers.
"I remember back then sitting out the back of a pub after the funeral and we were all devastated. The Irish band The Corrs were huge at the time and the song 'Forgiven, not forgotten,' was playing.
"James Mulvaney, one of the lads said, that's Páraic's song, he's forgiven for leaving us but he will never be forgotten and that is still so true today.
"30 years on and we are all parents ourselves and realise how his parents have to go to bed every night and get up the next day, without knowing what exactly happened that night.
"It's never too late. Someone out there knows and can give the family the answers they need and deserve so they can concentrate fully on remembering Páraic instead of constantly wondering."
Anyone with any information can contact their local garda station or the confidential line on 1800 666 111.
