Myles “Miley” Harty, 20, from Askeaton, County Limerick, was pronounced dead at the scene when the car he was traveling in crashed into a pole at around 1 a.m. on August 21.
The Gardaí, the Irish police force, arrested a male in his late teens at the scene in connection to the crash. Another passenger received non-life-threatening injuries during the crash.
The collision occurred just hours before Harty was due to marry his partner, Kate Quilligan on Saturday afternoon, reported The Irish Times.
Instead, a memorial service for the 20-year-old took place at the St Munchin’s Church in Limerick where the pair were set to get married that day.
In a Facebook post, Quilligan said she would be releasing balloons at the church at 3 p.m, to coincide when they were due to get married, because “that’s where we should be celebrating the best day of our life at that church but instead it’s the worst.”
She added: “I love you forever, it will always be me and you, no matter what. Love you unconditionally my gentle giant. You didn’t deserve this my handsome baby boy.”
Just hours before Harty died, Quilligan posted a photograph of the pair onto Facebook along with the caption. “Can’t believe I’m marrying my best friend in the whole world in the morning. See you at the altar babes.”
John Costelloe, a family friend and local Sinn Féin councilor, offered his condolences to both Harty’s and Quilligan’s families in wake of the accident.
“I know Kate and her mother Tina, and her father Connie, they are a very well-known and respected family here in Thomondgate; it’s an awful tragedy for them, a very difficult time,” he said.
Father Sean O’Longaigh, the Askeaton parish priest, told The Irish Times: “It’s very sad for the families. They are now switching from a wedding to a funeral; our thoughts and prayers are with the family.
“Myles was a young person who grew up locally, he went to the local school, he’d have an awful lot of relations around Askeaton.”
In a statement to Newsweek, a Gardaí spokesperson said that the man arrested in relation to the fatal road traffic collision has been released without charge and that file will now be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
