{"id":1039939,"date":"2026-06-21T01:40:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T01:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1039939\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T01:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T01:40:24","slug":"donegal-cancelled-after-spectator-fatality-dirtfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1039939\/","title":{"rendered":"Donegal cancelled after spectator fatality \u2013 DirtFish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The 2026 Donegal International Rally has been cancelled after a spectator fatality on the 12th special stage.<\/p>\n<p>Round five of this year\u2019s Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, Donegal had attracted a significant entry including five-time World Rally winner Kris Meeke and current M-Sport World Rally Championship driver Josh McErlean.<\/p>\n<p>Driving a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, Meeke had led the event from the start with reigning Irish Tarmac champion Callum Devine chasing in his \u0160koda. McErlean was lying third ahead of SS12.<\/p>\n<p>Devine and co-driver Noel O\u2019Sullivan left the road on Saturday\u2019s SS12 Gartan 1, and while the crew were uninjured in the accident, a spectator was killed. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/news\/ulster\/2026\/0620\/1579493-donegal-arrests\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Irish national broadcaster RTE<\/a> reported two further spectators were taken to Letterkenny University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n<p>All competing cars were redirected to service after the accident before the decision was made to cancel the remainder of the event.<\/p>\n<p>A statement on behalf of Motorsport Ireland and Donegal Motor Club read: \u201cMotorsport Ireland and Donegal Motor Club are deeply saddened to confirm that a young male spectator has passed away following an accident on the twelfth stage of the Donegal International Rally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a mark of respect the organizers have cancelled the remainder of the event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the governing body for four-wheeled motorsport in Ireland, Motorsport Ireland together with An Garda Sioch\u00e1na, have begun a full investigation into the circumstances of the accident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMotorsport Ireland are aware that video footage of the accident is circulating on social media and would ask that anyone that sees it not to share it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMotorsport Ireland and Donegal Motor Club express their deepest sympathies to the family of the deceased and ask that everyone respect their privacy at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Donegal International Rally has been cancelled after a spectator fatality on the 12th special stage. Round&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1039940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,43187,286506,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-1039939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-britain","tag-donegal","tag-donegal-rally-2026","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116785553983739386","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1039939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1039940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1039939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1039939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1039939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}