The six young adults killed in this week’s balcony collapse in Berkeley, California, shared an Irish heritage and, except for one, the same age, too.
Five of them hailed from Ireland, all 21, working in the United States on short-term visas.
The sixth victim had dual U.S.-Irish nationality and was from Rohnert Park, California. She was 22 and was also a cousin to one of the other women killed.
They were mostly a gregarious bunch who were also serious about school and work.
Here are details about the three women and three men killed when a fourth-floor balcony failed during a 21st birthday celebration at the Library Gardens Apartments in Berkeley. The mishap is now under investigation.
Olivia Burke
Olivia Burke, 21, was a college student who worked at a radio station in Ireland before going to the United States.
She was a cousin of Ashley Donohoe, also killed in the accident.
Burke listed her hometown as the Dublin suburb of Foxrock, where she graduated from Loreto College Foxrock in 2012, her Facebook page says.
The school is a private, Catholic secondary school for girls, with more than 600 pupils and about 50 teachers, the school’s website says.
On her Facebook page, Burke surrounded herself with female friends who liked to high-step for the camera or pose in dresses at a birthday party.
She was studying at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, a public higher education institution in Ireland. She was a third-year student seeking a bachelor’s business degree in entrepreneurship and management, the school said.
While in college, Burke once worked at an FM radio station in Wicklow, Ireland.
“She really was a mature girl. Beautiful. Really young looking. Just gorgeous. But mature, quiet, confident,” station staff member Anne Kennedy said.
“Just to think she’s not coming back. I can’t believe it,” Kennedy added.
Most recently, Burke was living in Vancouver in Canada. At the time of her death, she was a waitress in a restaurant near Berkeley, according to the CNN affiliate TV3 Ireland.
Ashley Donohoe
Ashley Donohoe, 22, was cousins with Olivia Burke, 21, also killed in the balcony accident.
Donohoe was Irish-American and lived in Rohnert Park, California. Her parents are Irish, TV3 reported.
She liked paddle boarding. In fact, Donohoe’s Facebook page features a recent photograph of her doing so on a California body of water with Mount Konocti in the background.
Her cousin Burke commented: “Work it gurl.”
Eoghan Culligan
Eoghan Culligan, 21, sported a red beard to match his red hair.
He was a student at the Dublin Institute of Technology and had completed his third year in the program for logistics and supply chain management. He was scheduled to graduate in 2016, his Facebook page says.
His official residence was Dublin, but he is originally from Rathfarnham, a suburb of Dublin, he wrote on Facebook. He apparently liked the comedy of Cheech and Chong because a link to the duo’s animated movie is listed on his page.
In 2012, he graduated from St. Mary’s College in Rathmines, Ireland, the school said.
One friend, Eva Meenaghan, was “devastated” by his death, she said on her Facebook page.
“There is a 6 foot tall Culli shaped hole in all of our hearts and nothing will ever fill that space,” Meenaghan wrote. ” I can promise you that I will never hear Walking in Memphis, play Guitar Hero, watch any horror movie or episode of Kitchen Nightmares, eat a Mars Bar or call someone a ‘FECKIN EEGIT’ without seeing your goofy face.
“I already miss you more than words can ever say. Thank you for being everything a girl could wish for in a best friend,” she wrote.
While at Dublin Institute of Technology, Culligan was also an athlete in the biggest club on campus called the GAA Club, which includes men’s Gaelic football, handball and hurling, the school said. The club makes annual trips to the United States to compete.
Culligan had been a member of Ballyboden St Enda’s football club since childhood and “was part of the Minor A Championship team that were beaten by Castleknock GAA in the county final of 2011,” the team said on its website. Culligan was “very popular” on the team, the club said.
Culligan “was also a keen GAA sportsman, with so much to look forward to,” said DIT president and professor Brian Norton. “The sadness felt at this tragedy reaches far beyond those who knew the students personally.”
Niccolai Schuster
Niccolai Schuster, 21, also had attended St. Mary’s College in Rathmines, Ireland, the same school that Culligan had attended.
“The thoughts and prayers of everybody in the St Mary’s Community are with the families of Niccolai and Eoghan, and the other Irish youngsters who died or were injured in the heartbreaking accident in the United States,” the school said in a statement.
Schuster lived in Dublin, but listed Terenure as his hometown on his Facebook page.
His Facebook page shows he was a soccer fan. In fact, the URL to the page contains the name of Brazilian soccer player Neymar da Silva Santos Junior.
Lorcan Miller
Lorcan Miller, 21, was studying medicine at University College Dublin, the Irish Times reported.
He was a fan of Harry Potter as he listed his political views on his Facebook page as “Albus Dumbeldore,” the school headmaster in the popular book series.
His Facebook page also features a crayon drawing apparently of his family, featuring “daddy,” “Mammy,” and three younger siblings named Lucy, Poppy and Jamie. A friend asked whether Lucy drew the picture before Miller left for an undisclosed destination.
“I found it in my folder and was feeling sentimental,” Miller wrote on his Facebook page.
At one point, he lived in Sydney, Australia, he wrote on Facebook.
He was a 2012 graduate of St. Andrew’s College in Dublin.
“The one thing speaking to colleagues this morning was the fact that he was positive, engaging, decent boy who was incredibly talented, but normal, modest and balanced about it all. He was hugely popular,” St Andrew’s College headmaster Peter Fraser told the Irish Times.
Eimear Walsh
Eimear Walsh, 21, was studying medicine at University College Dublin, as was Miller.
She was also a former classmate of Burke at Loreto College in Foxrock, outside Dublin, the school said.
Loreto College principal Bernadette Prendiville described both young women as model students.
“We are very shocked, that’s the bottom line,” Prendiville told the Irish Times. “They were two absolutely gorgeous students, that’s where we are all at. Everybody is just trying to really deal with that and no more.
“They were just two beautiful students. I was not here in the school at the time, but I’ve been told they were two of our excellent students, two quiet girls who had all their lives ahead of them, that’s the tragedy.”
Her Facebook page shows her photographed frequently with several female friends. She liked languages, listing English, Irish and Spanish.
