Tragic Deaths of Irish Students in Apartment Balcony Collapse
Photo courtesy of Library Gardens apartments (Berkeley, CA) website
The New York Times ran a sad story about some Irish students who died in a tragedy only blocks away from UC Berkeley.
Early Tuesday, 13 people, most of them young Irish students here on the visa program, were crowded onto a fourth-floor apartment balcony for what neighbors described as a loud party when the balcony collapsed, sending people tumbling onto the street below. The Times reports that six people were killed; five were Irish and the sixth had dual Irish-American citizenship, according to the Irish Embassy.
“More than 150,000 Irish students have used the program for J-1 visas to visit the United States in the past 50 years, including 8,000 last summer, officials said. They account for a large part of the students from around the world who avail themselves of a program that allows nonimmigrants to spend a summer here.”
The Berkeleyside has more details on the tragic incident.
KJ