All-Ireland winning Tyrone midfielder Kevin Hughes has opened his heart over a double family tragedy which saw him lose a brother and a sister in separate road fatalities.
Paul Hughes (22) and 24-year-old Helen Hughes were killed on the same stretch of road in 1997 and 2001.
Former Red Hand star Kevin has thrown his weight behind a campaign calling for an upgrade to the killer A5 road between Aughnacloy and Omagh, which has claimed 44 lives in the past 15 years.
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Tyrone GAA launched the campaign, entitled ‘Enough is Enough’ following the death of former county Minor and U20 players John Rafferty on the road last October.
The stretch of road, the A4, on which the tragedies which devastated the Hughes family has since been converted to dual carriageway, and the rate of fatalities has dropped dramatically, but plans to upgrade the adjoining A5 have faced a number of legal challenges from local land-owners.
“Paul was 22 years of age, he was five years older than me,” Kevin Hughes recalled.
“He was one of the main reasons I followed his footsteps in Gaelic football, the bog older brother, to compete with him, to be better than him.
“He was secretary of our club for a few years, even at that young age, and played full back on our senior team.
“He was so immersed in Gaelic games within the club, like myself and our family as well. He was just a great clubman.”
Hughes, who won the man of the match award in the 2003 All-Ireland final win over Armagh, was playing for the county minor team back in 1997, and was on his way to a training session when he came upon a build-up of traffic on the road.
Unaware that this was as a result of a fatal accident involving his brother, he diverted along a back road and continued to the training session in Cookstown, and only found out later that evening that Paul had been killed.
Four years later, tragedy struck again, when his sister Helen was killed in a road accident just yards from the spot where Paul had died.
“It was only about 20 yards from where Paul was killed.
“Again it was down to a congested road. Somebody was trying to reverse out, and reversed out in front of Helen’s car, which her friend was driving.
“I was thinking, this can’t be happening again.
“It’s really bad to lose a sibling, but for your parents to lose a child, it’s really horrific. You could see their lives spiral downhill.”
Kevin Hughes called on Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure to proceed with plans to upgrade the A5, which were first approved in 2007.
“The A4 was started in 2008, and the A5 was given the go-ahead in 2007, and in almost the same number of years, 44 lives have been lost on the A5, and two, possibly three, on the A4 since it was upgraded,” he said.
“It is as simple as that. In numbers and facts, it works.
“The A4, before it was upgraded, had similar death rates, fatalities on the road, as the A5 is currently seeing.
“So to get the upgrade is a no-brainer, and it’s just very disappointing, that in 15 years, it’s still no further forward.”
He praised the GAA in Tyrone for its decision to launch a campaign demanding action on the notorious route, which is the main road from Dublin to Derry and Donegal.
“It should create a lot of noise and ruffle a lot of feathers, and give certain people the kick up the ass that they need, because although Tyrone GAA is pushing it, its all about community. The GAA is all about community, it’s about the local people.
“Garvaghey is situated in the centre of A5, at a very dangerous junction.
“It’s mind-boggling to think that in this day and age, that the main link to the north-west, with the volume of traffic that’s on it, isn’t fit for purpose.”
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