An online fundraiser that was organised to assist with the repatriation of the bodies of a young family that were killed in a car crash in Co Galway last week has raised over €50,000.
It is being organised by friends of Karzan Sabah, in order to cover some of the costs associated with the repatriation of his remains - and those of his wife Shahen Qasm and their eight-month-old daughter Lina - to Kurdistan.
At least 2,000 people have donated €52,380 to the GoFundMe website fundraiser so far, many posting messages of sympathy to the friends and relatives of the deceased NUI Galway PhD student and his family.
The family were from Kurdistan and had been living in Ireland since 2017.
They were returning home after viewing a house as they prepared to "start a new life" when the crash happened last week.
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Co-founder of Kurdish Art Nergez Group Ireland and Kurdish Radio Ireland Hiwa Wahab said the family were getting ready to move to Carlow for work.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Wahab said: "The family arrived on a student visa to Ireland and Karzan was submitting his PhD research to the university (NUI Galway).
"He had a plan to move to Carlow. On the day of the accident he was there to view a property to bring his family to Carlow and start a new life there."
Mr Wahab said Karzan's brother only learned of the news online when he read about the car crash on the Kurdish organisation's Facebook page.
Mr Wahib said: "He was concerned about the news. I believe someone called him and told him that Karzan had been missing for nearly 20 hours.
"His phone was switched off, so they asked us to do some research about this.
"We took a few details from them, and we started to make phone calls to the gardaí and to the hospital and our branch in Galway.
"Three hours later, unfortunately, we had received the bad news and that's when we shared it with the family."
NUI Galway has described Mr Sabah as a highly-regarded researcher, who had recently submitted his PhD thesis to the university.
Kurdish community pay tribute to Galway crash victims
In a statement, NUI Galway extended its sympathy to the family and friends of Mr Sabah.
The university said it is deeply saddened by "such an untimely loss, in such tragic circumstances".
The Chaplain at NUI Galway has said the tragic loss of the family has "ignited a huge compassionate sense of kindness and heartfelt support right across the country but indeed among the NUI Galway community".
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Fr Ben Hughes said through the Kurdish community in Galway and Mr Sabah's friends within the NUI community, he's been able to make direct contact with the family.
He said they "are tremendously grateful for the support they have received and are receiving from the wider community in Galway".
He said their priority is to get the remains of their loved ones back home to their own country as soon as possible.
Fr Hughes said Mr Sabah had just completed his PhD in Agriculture and was "an outstanding scientist, an avid researcher".
Gardaí are continuing to investigate the crash in which a fourth person, the driver of another car, was killed.
He has been named as Jonas Adam Lach from Portumna, Co Galway.
Another person, travelling in a third car, was taken to hospital after sustaining non-life-threatening injuries.
