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Reported on the news tonight:
2 deaths in Northern Ireland & 2 in the Republic of Ireland in the last week alone....... The latest was young 13 year old Patrick Devlin.
This taken from the News Letter:
Published Date: 08 September 2007
Location: Belfast
Another young boy dies while playing match in Co Tyrone
by Gemma Murray
ANOTHER young boy has died while playing a GAA match in Co Tyrone.
Patrick Devlin, 13, died after collapsing during a GAA training session in Ardboe today (Saturday].
A defibrillator was used at the scene to try to revive him but he was later declared dead at Craigavon Hospital.
The shock news of a second sporting death came as hundreds of mourners packed into the funeral Mass of ten-year-old Patrick Breen from Dreglish, also in Co Tyrone.
SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone said the entire Ardboe community was "stunned" by today's tragedy.
The Ardboe councillor said he knew Patrick Devlin, his parents and wider family circle.
"Right throughout this community the ripples of sympathy for them at this time are really strong," he said. "People really really feel for them."
Earlier this week, on Tuesday, Patrick Breen also died during a GAA training session. It was later discovered that he had a heart defect.
His coffin was carried into St Patrick's Church in Drumquin today (Saturday] for 11am Mass covered in red and white flowers, the colours of the County Tyrone GAA team.
GAA members and team-mates from Patrick's team, who were with him when he died, formed a guard of honour.
The Parish Priest said GAA "was Patrick's love" and he had hoped one day to play for his county.
He said no-one could have foreseen what happened.
The priest also spoke directly to Patrick's team mates and said what they had gone through on Tuesday was traumatic.
But he advised them to keep playing GAA football because that is what Patrick would have wanted.
The football-mad teenager could not be revived after he collapsed during a training session with the under-12's team.
A defibrillator was used to no avail as Patrick was pronounced dead at the scene.
After his post-mortem the Coroner's Office said the schoolboy had died of "hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy", a disease of the heart muscle.
After the second death, Ulster Secretary of the GAA Danny Murphy said there was a feeling of disbelief that two children from the county had died.
"It is truly tragic for the family and for the young people who were in attendance on both occasions," he said.
"It is hard to comprehend how young people in their early formative years can die so suddenly."
The child from Ardboe is the fourth boy to die in Ireland this week. Two boys died in Co Westmeath in similar circumstances.
The Ulster deaths have prompted calls from Portstewart man, John Lundy, who lost his 19-year-old son to Sudden Death Syndrome eight years ago, to reappeal for Health Minister Michael McGimpsey to introduce statutory screening for the condition.
Mr Lundy – whose son died after playing a football match – is Northern Ireland spokesman for Cardiac Risk to the Young (C-R-Y].
Yesterday he said the second death in Co Tyrone made his calls for statutory testing "even more necessary".
He said: "We do not know how this teenager died but his family will be feeling tremendous sadness and shock.
"His death underlines the need for immediate heart testing on youngsters before there are any more tragedies.
I am very sad at this latest news."
For further information about C-R-Y and to book a screening, log onto www.c-r-y.org
Last Updated: 08 September 2007 7:05 PM
SO SAD................ Ails x
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