A priest told how he was forced to dive for cover and moments later anoint a man struck by a crazed driver in a graveyard.
Several hundred people were at a Blessing Of The Graves ceremony in Dundalk, Co Louth when a maniac hijacked a car and smashed into crowds twice.
Gardai later arrested a bare chested suspect a short distance away from the cemetery.
Parish priest Fr Mark O’Hagan said: “It was actually coming to the end of the Blessing of Graves, I was at the podium with the choir and a number of other priests.
“All of a sudden I could hear shouting and screaming. I popped my head around the corner and I could see hundreds of people just running and screaming and shouting.
“Somebody shouted up ‘Father phone for an ambulance quick,’ so I knew there was something wrong.
“I jumped off the podium and as I was phoning the guards and walking along, the car sped past me up to the upper car park.
“I went over to the man that had been injured and anointed him. He was hit by the car.
“My understanding is he has been moved from Drogheda hospital to Beaumont with serious head injuries.
“Children were crying, people just walking in disbelief. There was fear in people’s faces.”
The incident happened at St Patrick’s graveyard in Dowdallshill on Sunday afternoon.
While leaving the graveyard, the driver of the hijacked car caused damage to other parked cars.
The car was found with its tyres deflated and the airbags activated.
Fr O’Hagan said he tried to stop the car himself when it came towards him.
He told RTE One’s Morning Ireland: “I tried to instinctively put my left hand out from where I was to try to [tell him] to please, please stop or slow down.
“While doing this the driver mounted the kerb and it was coming towards myself where I jumped out of the way and the car itself was making its way to the podium.
“Then he did a U-turn and sped off the way he came down the left hand side and out of the graveyard.
“And then after that we announced for everyone to get off the pathways and to get into the graves.
“We got the guards and the ambulance had arrived, the guards asked that we leave the graveyard that it had become a crime scene.
“My concern yesterday was to make sure the people in the graveyard were safe.
“I was frightened at the time my concern was to ensure nobody else was hurt and everyone was safe.”
