A drunk driver who killed a four-year-old boy in a head-on collision in Co. Laois has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

Finbarr O’Rourke of Laurel Drive in Portlaoise had drank between eight and ten pints of cider on the day of crash.

On April 17, 2014, Gillian Treacy was on her way home after taking her two boys, Ciarán and Seán, to see their grandparents.

Their paths tragically met at Ballymorris in Portlaoise, when O’Rourke’s car crossed the road at speed and smashed head-on into Gillian’s car, killing four-year-old Ciarán and leaving his mother with catastrophic injuries that may yet cost her a part of her leg.

Today, Judge Johnson said the needless death of Ciarán should be a wake-up call for the nation.

He called for more intensive campaigning around drink driving and longer sentences for those convicted of dangerous driving causing death.

Mr O’Rourke was also convicted of drinking and driving.

40-year-old O’Rourke was then jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

Last week, Ciaran's parents Gillian and Ronan Treacy had told a sentence hearing in their victim impact statement that the family is "paralysed with grief and in the depths of despair".

The family's victim impact statement, which some readers may find distressing, can be read:

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