‘We’ll miss him forever’

“Killian was all about being good. He always wanted to help everyone. So in this way he’s still helping,” says Fiona Casey, mum of the late Killian Casey.

The Crosserlough teen tragically lost his life following a swimming accident at Lough Sheelin almost 12 months ago.

To mark the first anniversary of the 15-year-old’s passing, on Sunday, July 24, the Casey family and their neighbouring community will host the first annual tractor and vehicle run in Killian’s memory.

“We can never thank them enough,” say the Casey family of the event’s two beneficiaries - Temple Street Hospital’s ICU and air ambulance service - both of which played vital roles in attempting to save young Killian’s life.

Killian spent two days in Temple Street, arriving via Dublin-based coastguard helicopter Rescue 116 on Tuesday, July 20.

“He passed away on the Thursday (July 22), around 7pm. They’d done all they could, and more,” says Fiona.

Due to Covid, access to the ICU was limited.

Yet Fiona and Killian’s dad Martin were given ample opportunity to be by their son’s bedside.

“We never left him,” she explains, the family clinging onto hope after medics revived a “small pulse” in Killian by the lakeside.

Fiona though describes as “devastating” the moment doctors told the Caseys nothing more could be done.

“You’re hanging onto whatever glimmer of hope there is. But no... it just wasn’t to be.”

The family collected copies of Killian’s handprint. With medical devices removed, Killian was dressed once again in his normal clothes, so Fiona, Martin and his sisters Chloe and Megan and brother David, quietly said their goodbyes.

“He was our Killian again.”

The upcoming tractor and vehicle run, with registration taking place at Crosserlough’s Dr Plunkett Memorial Park from 11:30am and a route passing by the parish graveyard, is in recognition of a young man who his parents say had lots of interests in life, and plenty more yet to live for.

“Killian had a great interest in tractors and machinery. He’d always tell you he hadn’t but it was coming out in him certainly,” grins Martin, who bought a Ford 8210 which his son suitably nicknamed ‘The Beast’.

“That was Killian’s tractor and the first thing he bought for it was window sticker that read ‘Drive her like you’re late for Mass’. That was Killian, full of fun!”

By a strange stroke of fate, only the day before the heart-breaking lake accident, Martin and his son were drawing hay and when passing Lacken lake, Killian dared his father to jump in.

“It was like looking in on a mirror,” says Martin recalling the skyline-silver and stillness of the water’s surface.

But that spur of the moment conversation led to Martin schooling his youngest on the dangers of lake swimming.

“I said the likelihood is if you went down in a lake you wouldn’t get back up. The following day by half two he was gone, and unfortunately there was several others that same week as well.”

His parents remember with fondness Killian’s short-term goal to get his category W tractor licence once he turned 16, and beyond that “make a bomb” of money drawing bales come summer.

Killian would have turned 16 on Good Friday gone by, and Martin reflects mindfully: “Who knows where the road would’ve taken him from there.”

For Fiona, the most difficult and saddest thing to comprehend is all the life experiences her son will now “miss out on”. “He was a jolly young lad, full of life, full of divilment as well, but in a nice way. He was only beginning to get out there, a little bit of freedom, confidence too. He loved his football and his music. He had a lovely bunch of friends who stuck with him. It was all ahead of him.”

Both parents agree their home has become much “quieter” since Killian’s passing.

The wall of the front living room where Killian would spend his down time is dedicated to his memory. Framed photos share space with words such as ‘brother’, ‘grandson’, ‘joker’, ‘buddy’.

A teddy bear made from Killian’s No 7 Crosserlough jersey sits on the sofa, and on the wall hangs a cowboy hat signed by Irish country music star, Marty Mone. His song ‘The Day the World Shut Down’ was one of Killian’s favourites. It was played at his funeral. Fiona and Martin say the support the Caseys have received from family, friends, neighbours and wider community has been “incredible”.

“It makes you appreciate living in a rural community,” Martin remarks.

The day Fiona and Martin travelled from Dublin to collect their son’s remains, July 24, is memorable for a number of reasons. For one, it coincided with the couple’s wedding anniversary.

But on the way back to their Rockfield home, raw with grief as they were, on approaching Ballyjamesduff they found themselves greeted by a cavalcade of tractors and cars driven by Killian’s friends.

“There must’ve been 30 or 40 tractors and cars, and they led us all the way out and parked out here,” remembers Fiona.

“And every night they’d start up their tractors at 10pm and rev and blow horns, and flash the lights to say goodnight to Killian before they left. They did that every night until they escorted him right up the graveyard then. The young people around here are out on their own. They organised this entirely themselves, and number plates with Killian’s name on it. We still see those number plates about the place. We’ll miss him forever.”

Entry for the tractor vehicle run in memory of the late Killian Casey, with proceeds to Temple Street Hospital and the air ambulance service, is €20 and can be booked at ‘Killian’s Tractor Vehicle Run’ on eventbrite.ie or on the day itself, July 24, at Crosserlough GAA grounds, Church Road, Kilnaleck, from 11:30am.