GAA’s Kevin McElvanna: ‘I had to tell my kids their mummy was dead’

“Nothing would prepare you to tell your children that their mummy isn’t coming home.”

Father of four Kevin McElvanna, who lost his wife in a car crash last year, has been speaking about the trauma of breaking the news of her death to their children.

His wife, Ciara, died following a four-vehicle crash in Markethill, County Armagh in November 2023. He was badly injured, breaking his neck in the collision, and two of his friends died.

Mr McElvanna, a surgeon, said he had broken bad news to people before, but this was different.

“My brother Paul drove me home, I had to prepare how I was going to break that news to them,” he told the BBC podcast The GAA Social.

“Probably a bit ahead of schedule in terms of my own injuries, when I would have been discharged from hospital, I left the hospital temporarily to come home to do that.

“Part of my medical training, I have broken bad news on a number of occasions in traumatic circumstances, so that maybe equipped me with some preparation or skills with how to go about that.”

Mr McElvanna said he knew what he was going to tell each of his children when he got home.

“I spoke to them individually and explained; that was probably the most difficult thing amongst everything.”