{"id":564840,"date":"2026-07-02T08:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T08:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/564840\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T08:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T08:36:13","slug":"spain-crash-victims-were-excited-to-be-going-on-holiday-mullingar-locals-say-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/564840\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain crash victims were excited to be going on holiday, Mullingar locals say \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A book of condolence lies open on a small table inside Havana Sun salon on Austin Friars Street in Mullingar<\/a>, Co Westmeath<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the counter stands a lit candle in front of a black-and-white photograph of a young woman: Michaela Newcombe, from Springfield on the northwestern outskirts of the town, who worked as a receptionist in the salon.<\/p>\n

The scene is just one example of how the town is still coming to terms with the deaths of three local people in a car crash near M\u00e1laga<\/a> in southern Spain early on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

They were Newcombe and her partner Mark McCullagh-Crichton, as well as his sister-in-law Amy McCullagh. Ian McCullagh, husband to Amy and brother to Mark, was taken to hospital to be treated for serious injuries.<\/p>\n

The two couples had flown out to the Spanish resort for a holiday last week.<\/p>\n

A death notice for McCullagh-Crichton, published on Tuesday, said: \u201cWith great sadness, we announce the untimely loss of Mark following a tragic crash in Spain alongside his girlfriend Michaela and his sister-in-law Amy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was described as \u201ca loving son, brother, uncle and godfather\u201d who will be \u201cdeeply missed by his heartbroken parents\u201d and extended family.<\/p>\n

A death notice for Newcombe said it was with \u201cthe heaviest of hearts that we share the news of our dear Michaela\u2019s death\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichaela will be forever cherished and missed by her grief-stricken nanny Francie and grandad Eddie,\u201d it said, and \u201csadly missed\u201d by her heartbroken parents, extended family, and her \u201cwide circle of friends and work colleagues\u201d.<\/p>\n

Both families said donations, if desired, should go to the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust, an Irish charity that assists with the repatriation of remains when deaths occur abroad. Funeral details have yet to announced.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelaMichaela Newcombe and Mark McCullagh-Crichton. Photograph: rip.ie <\/p>\n

As news of the crash began to reach Mullingar on Monday, a statement was posted on the salon\u2019s Facebook page describing Newcombe as \u201cthe face and the heart of our salon\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the salon, a young man shared memories of Newcombe with a staff member as another woman sat on one of the soft leather chairs for customers with a lost look on her face.<\/p>\n

On Pearse Street, the main thoroughfare through the town, a middle-aged woman walked slowly along the footpath. \u201cI knew them all \u2013 sorry I can\u2019t talk \u2013 it\u2019s too upsetting,\u201d she said before continuing on her way.<\/p>\n

Further along on Oliver Plunkett Street, two men stood talking. One of them, Muhammed Khan (38), who owns Phone Spot, a mobile phone shop across the street, said Mark and Ian often called in to his shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very nice people,\u201d he said. \u201cAlways with the community, helping out. About a week or two before they went on holidays he [Ian] was in my shop, excited to be going on holidays. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis business was up … he went around in a van. He hosted birthday parties for kids. \u2018After the holiday my business will be back to normal again,\u2019 he told me. The whole family was in my shop. They would ask \u2018how are you?\u2019 All very nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018A kind, caring, beautiful soul\u2019: Tributes paid to three Irish people killed in Spain car crashOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Florina Marinoiu (47), who works in Khan\u2019s shop, also often spoke with the brothers there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very nice people,\u201d she said. \u201cI saw the news and I said, \u2018I\u2019m not going to open it up\u2019, but then I saw the pictures, so I had to open it up. \u2018This cannot be happening\u2019 [I thought]. We knew them [so] it\u2019s different. It\u2019s so sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

She remembers being on her break outside the shop the last time the brothers were there and recalls them greeting her on the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were our customers,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were so, so lovely. Lovely people, it\u2019s so sad. They were always saying hi, always waving as they passed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A book of condolence lies open on a small table inside Havana Sun salon on Austin Friars Street…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,33076,5,383,7,8,19871],"class_list":["post-564840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-mullingar","tag-news","tag-spain","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-westmeath"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116849475303816471","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}