Tributes have been paid to a Britain’s Got Talent star who was killed in a car crash just six weeks after the untimely death of his father.
Oran McConville, 18, was pronounced dead after the accident. He was sat in the front passenger seat of a grey Volkswagen Golf during a collision in the early hours of Saturday morning (5 April). The driver was arrested at the scene.
The teenager, who was a talented footballer, was also a singer, and his school choir took part in ITV talent competition BGT in 2017, reaching the semi-finals the year pianist Toki Myers won the show.
He competed as part of St Patrick’s Primary School, singing Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know” in an audition that head judge Simon Cowell gave his seal of approval to.
McConville’s death comes after his father Paddy “suddenly” died on February 21. His 11-year-old sister was also killed after being hit by a Volkswagen people carrier in 2009.
Speaking at McConville’s Requiem Mass in Drumgath, Co Down, parish priest Charles Byrne described McConville as a “natural performer” who “got away with more mischief than most” throughout his life, per MailOnline.
“With a smile like his, who could be cross for long?” he said.
“At this time, we are all lost for words. Words are woefully inadequate to express the pain and the sorrow in our hearts that we have for you,” Byrne added.
Drumgath GAC, the Gaelic Athletics club where McConville played since he was young and later coached younger athletes described him as a “kind, gentle, full of humour, and always up for a chat”.
“He had time for people, young and old, and brought joy to those lucky enough to have known him. Whether it was on the football pitch or in the heart of the community, Órán carried himself with warmth, respect, and quiet charm,” they said.
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McConville’s older sister Rachael died in 2009 after she was hit by a car while walking along a road, when he was just three years old.
Priest Stephen Ferris, who was with the McConville family when Rachael died in hospital, said at the time that her death “traumatised” the local area.
He told the Belfast Telegraph at the time: “Rachael was a happy child. She was intelligent and talented. She loved her family and her friends and she had tremendous potential.
“She was living life and enjoying it to the full. Her death has traumatised our close-knit, country parish; it has numbed everyone.”
McConville’s mother went on to write a book about the death of her child, My Beautiful Daughter, My Beautiful Friend, in 2017, which followed the family’s journey through grief.
This was followed by a sequel, Rachael’s Rainbow: Never Give Up On Your Dreams, and spiritual book Time to Change in 2020.
