This is the mother of of two who died in a head-on collision after visiting her own mum on Mother's Day.
Susan O'Sullivan, from Boherbue in north Cork, died instantly when her vehicle collided with another car on the N72 Mallow-Killarney road at around 3:30pm on Sunday.
The 41-year-old, whose two young children were seated in the car with her, was declared dead at the scene - while the kids were rushed to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Now it has emerged that Susan had just visited her own mother with her two children - and was on her way home from bringing them to an adventure centre when the horror crash occurred.
Speaking to The Irish Mirror, local priest Fr Jim Keneally, who visited the family home yesterday and today said: "We're devastated here because she's a lovely, lovely girl. They're a lovely family. She lost her brother a year and a half ago. Her only brother. There's five girls and one boy and he died at the age of 38 or 40. So the poor mother and father God help them."
"I was down there today and last night. They are all completely and totally distraught."
Fr Kennelly explained that Susan had brought her children to see her mother as they marked Mother's Day - when they made a last minute decision to bring them to a fun centre with slides before the crash took place.
Yesterday (Sunday) was Mother's Day and she had come down to her mother's house just to celebrate Mother's Day. Then the children said can we go to the play centre and so they went there. Then it was on the way home that this happened."
Fr Kenneally said those closest to Susan are distraught and baffled over the crash which took place on a bright day and a wide road. He also told how Susan's daughter went into surgery today - and has serious but not life threatening injuries - while her son is recovering well. "I was down earlier in the day. The girl got an operation today. She has a lot of injuries. I don't think they're life threatening but they can be quite devastating injuries. The other little lad is ok as far as I know," he told us.
Tragic Susan married her long-time partner Gavin in 2018 - and the pair have a young boy and girl together - understood to be aged eight and five. The driver of and sole occupant of the other car - named locally as Mary Coughlan (62) from Mitchelstown, also died in the horrific collision.
Local Mallow councillor Liam Madden told this paper of the shock in the area - and how brave fire brigade officers did all they could as they arrived less than five minutes after the accident.
"The road out there is good and wide, I don't know what happened. Unfortunately this seems to be happening every day. It seems to be constant on our roads. Especially when you see that now with two young kids. That's tough for them for the rest of their lives with their mother gone now."
"The fire services were there very quickly and within four or five minutes they got to the scene. It's very tragic and my sympathy goes out to all the family. As the day goes on it's becoming more shocking because unfortunately more people have died on our roads," he said.
Local councillor Bernard Moynihan, who represents the Boherbue area where Ms O'Sullivan is from, said word spread fast in the community. "Yesterday evening as the news spread among a very tight knit, very loyal community -people were shocked. My sympathies go to the family who are really special people, well known, hardworking, decent people. They are lovely people. When word spread the phone began to ring and there's upset across the area really," he told Newstalk Breakfast.
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.
Story Saved
You can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.
