Rosaleen McDonagh, 3, is being mourned in her local community after she died following a road collision in Portlaoise, Co Laois, yesterday, August 30.

"Good night my little angel," McDonagh's grandmother said in a social media post sharing pictures of the three-year-old.

“Oh my baby girl what are we going to do with you,” McDonagh’s grandmother wrote in another post. “You were the life of the house.”

“We are lost, can’t get our heads around it. My poor baby, so beautiful, happy, we will never forget you.

“You gained your wings today we have our very own angel now to look over your mommy and daddy.

“We are broken.”

A rosary was being organized for Thursday evening at the hospital while McDonagh's postmortem was also due to be conducted today. Funeral details for the three-year-old have yet to be confirmed.

Gardaí said on Wednesday that a fatal road traffic collision occurred at approximately 1:15 pm that afternoon.

The collision, which involved a car and a pedestrian, occurred on Cosby Avenue in the Fairgreen residential area of Portlaoise, Co Laois.

An infant girl, 3 years old, was seriously injured during the collision, Gardaí said. She was taken to Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise where she was later pronounced deceased.

McDonagh's death was the eleventh fatality on Irish roads in less than a week, and the 125th in Ireland this year.

On Friday, August 24, four young people, including two siblings, were killed in a single-vehicle collision near Clonmel, Co Tipperary. The group was reportedly en route to a Leaving Cert celebration in Carlow Town.

On Sunday, August 27, a motorcyclist, aged in his 40s, was killed in a single-vehicle collision in Mullaghatour, Belmont, Co Offaly.

Later on Sunday, Gardaí confirmed that another motorcyclist, also in his 40s, was killed in a single-vehicle collision at the Junction 1 Southbound of the M1/M50 slip road in Dublin.

On Tuesday, August 29, a driver in his 40s was killed in a single-vehicle crash in Carrowreagh, Bridge End, Co Donegal.

Later on Tuesday night, three people - grandparents and their grandchild - were killed in a single-vehicle collision near Cashel, Co Tipperary, not far from where Friday's fatal collision occurred. Two other people injured in Tuesday night's collision, family members of the deceased, were hospitalized as of Wednesday morning.

Noting that there had been eleven deaths in the last six days, Assistant Garda Commissioner for Roads Policing Paula Hilman said on Today with Claire Byrne on Thursday: "I think it has ultimately been one of the most tragic weeks on the roads for a very long time."

Hilman said that the figure of 125 fatalities on Irish roads so far this year is an increase of 24 from the same period in 2022 and an increase of 39 from the same period in 2019, before COVID.

She added: "Driving is one of the most serious things that we do in life and we take it for granted.

"We get behind the wheel of a car and we go wherever we're heading.

"But it is one of the most important things we do in life in terms of looking out to come home safe and ensure that other road users are safe as well."