Family holiday drama ends well thanks to bizarre twist

A Galway family was left devastated when their family car containing a €4,000 customised car seat for their special needs boy was stolen while on holiday.

However a bizarre twist of fate intervened to bring a happy ending to the tale.

Aisling and Ronan Keane along with their four children from Kinvara had spent a few nights in their holiday home in Tullaghan, Co Leitrim last week when disaster struck. Ronan had returned from a morning’s surf when he discovered the back door open and Aisling’s people carrier gone, a Volkwagon Sharan.

Also stolen were the keys for his car, leaving the family stranded without transport in a remote part of North Leitrim. Having the family car stolen was traumatic enough, but it also held a car seat built specially for eight-year-old Conor at a cost of €4,000.

The family contacted a radio station in order to appeal to those who had stolen the car to at least return the car seat.

Conor has the extremely rare hereditary disease known as Peters-plus syndrome which is characterised by eye abnormalities, short stature and developmental delay. He needs to be peg fed and requires round-the-clock care as he cannot sit, walk or talk.

Aisling said the people carrier and special seat made their lives a lot easier as it allowed them to carry the upright wheelchair in the boot and meant that she could put Conor into the car seat in one move as it swiveled out through the sliding door.

After her appeal, Aisling was contacted by the transport manager of Rosedale Special School in Renmore where Conor is a student. Michael Nolan offered her the use of a bus for a week while their family continued their holiday.

Aisling declined the offer, as a VW dealership in Sligo had given them the use of a car while they got a new one sorted.

Ten minutes later, Michael called her back, asking her for the registration number of her car. He was on holiday in a Sligo hotel and by a strange coincidence had at that minute discovered her car parked up outside. As far as he could tell, the car was undamaged and the car seat still intact in the back.

Gardaí were contacted and a forensics team was combing the vehicle for any evidence left behind by the thieves. CCTV footage was also being examined to solve the mystery. Aisling was delighted by the peculiar turn of events. It meant that the family were able to continue their holiday as planned – the couple also have 16-year-old twins and a ten-year-old daughter.

“It all happened so fast. Everything happened together. You just can’t get your head around it. Oh my God…” The Conor Keane Trust was recently the chosen charity for the Lough Cutra triathlon last May in order to raise funds for hoisting equipment for the boy.