![\"Aoife](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3_aoife.jpg\")
<\/p>\nColleagues from Newry, Mourne and Down Council have paid tribute to Aoife Tinnelly who died following a crash in Kilkeel on Monday evening<\/p>\n
12:38, 21 Apr 2026Updated 15:20, 21 Apr 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Aoife Tinnelly(Image: Councillor Jarlath Tinnelly\/Facebook)<\/p>\n
A Co Down councillor has paid tribute to his daughter following her death in a road traffic collision on Monday.<\/p>\n
24-year-old Aoife Tinnelly, who has been locally named as the victim of a fatal road traffic collision in Kilkeel<\/a>, is the daughter of Newry Mourne and Down Independent councillor Jarlath Tinnelly, who confirmed her death on social media earlier today.<\/p>\n Sharing a picture of Aoife, Mr Tinnelly wrote: “My beautiful baby Aoife 21\/10\/2001 – 20\/04\/2026.”<\/p>\n The local community in Kilkeel<\/a>, Co Down<\/a>, and the wider Mourne Mountains area have been left in shock following the tragedy, which occurred shortly before 6.30 pm on April 20, on the Newry Road.<\/p>\n Emergency services attended the scene after a collision involving a white Audi A1 and a blue Mercedes-Benz. Aoife was sadly pronounced dead at the scene, and two other people were taken to the hospital for treatment.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Woman in her 20s dies after two-vehicle Kilkeel crash<\/a>READ MORE: Man arrested in connection with series of burglaries in Lambeg<\/a><\/p>\n Many of Councillor Tinnelly’s colleagues, who have worked with him for over a decade, have spoken of their heartbreak at hearing the news.<\/p>\n SDLP Councillor Laura Devlin said: \u201cWe in the SDLP are utterly heartbroken to learn of Jarlath\u2019s daughter Aoife\u2019s death. I have worked with Jarlath for 12 years and hold him in such high regard. I am simply devastated for him and his family.<\/p>\n “As a parent myself, it\u2019s hard to even comprehend what they are all going through \u2013 to lose a child would be so difficult, but even more so in such utterly tragic circumstances. I am thinking and praying for all of the wider family circle at such an awful time.\u201d<\/p>\n Fellow SDLP Councillor Declan McAteer told Belfast Live: “I am devastated to hear the news of the tragic death of Aoife. It is a terrible thing for someone to lose their child. My deepest sympathies to Jarlath and his family, my thoughts go out to them all.”<\/p>\n DUP<\/a> councillor Glyn Hanna acknowledged that the road was well-known for collisions as he offered his condolences to Aoife’s family.<\/p>\n “My thoughts and condolences go out to Jalaith and his family during this difficult time,” he said. “It is a tragic accident, and a young lady has died. There have been a lot of accidents at the junction over the years, and unfortunately, this collision was fatal.”<\/p>\n DUP Councillor Henry Reilly added: “I am absolutely devastated to hear this news. Aoife was a lovely young lady with a wide circle of friends. She was very well respected in the community.<\/p>\n “My thoughts and prayers are with the Tinnelly family at this time and also with those who were injured in the incident.”<\/p>\n Sinn F\u00e9in councillor Michael Rice also expressed his condolences to the family and friends of Aoife Tinnelly..<\/p>\n He said: \u201cIt\u2019s devastating to learn Aoife has tragically died. My immediate thoughts are with the Tinnelly family as they begin to process this terrible incident.<\/p>\n \u201cAn entire community is heartbroken and in mourning today and I know that we will all do everything that we can to support the family in what will be difficult days to come.\u201d<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage <\/strong>here<\/a><\/strong> and <\/strong>sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a><\/strong> here.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colleagues from Newry, Mourne and Down Council have paid tribute to Aoife Tinnelly who died following a crash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[88580,255720,5821,5820,1144,1618,16,15],"class_list":["post-910399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-co-down","tag-kilkeel","tag-mourne-and-down-district-council","tag-newry","tag-northern-ireland","tag-psni","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116446649502584060","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910399","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=910399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}