TRAGEDY

of drink-driving I just wish for one minute they could step through my front door and feel the emptiness in our hearts because we don’t have Brendan here.

“And that is because somebody took a chance and drove drunk.”

Anthony Long, 29, was jailed for five years and banned from driving for 15 – but was released after serving three and a half.

He fled the scene but later admitted involvement.

He’d been drinking for 11 hours and downed 11 cans of beer, plus another seven pints, two vodkas and three shots of After Shock.

Long also did a line of cocaine before getting into his car to drive home. Christina says she will never get over the loss of “my beautiful boy”. She added: “We only exist now, we don’t live a full life anymore. Our lives are ripped apart.

“Losing my son in that way was devastating.

“I ring his voicemail every single day. I have a beautiful pillow made out of his shirt which I sleep on at night.

“I have his sock in my car, that never leaves me. You never get used to speaking about your child in the past tense.

“I would ask drivers from the bottom of my heart not to take chances. Could they live with it if they took an innocent life?”

You never get used to speaking about your child in the past tense CHRISTINA DONNELLY YESTERDAY CORK

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