The 12-year-old victim of this morning's crash near Adare, Co Limerick has been named as Wiktor Chojecki.
The first year pupil died when the car he was driving was involved in a head-on crash with a truck on the N21.
Emergency services were called but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
His body has been taken to the morgue at University Hospital Limerick.
Monsignor Dan Neenan was one of the first on the scene.
"I was called by the Guards at around 4 in the morning, and told that there was a fatal accident very close to the village of Adare.
"So obviously I went straight away, and clearly the Guards were just trying to get the little boy - that's really what he was at 12 years of age - to get Wiktor out of the car.
"So once they had him out I anointed him, I blessed him and said some prayers."
Monsignor Neenan says Wiktor's parents then arrived from Newcastle West.
"The Guards were bringing his mom and dad, so we waited for them - it was quite a wait.
"But to see them having to come and identify their son was just harrowing.
"They arrived and they spent a while on their own with Wiktor.
"Then I went, and I don't know what I said, but I was there with them for a while and we said some prayers.
"I invited them to say some prayers in Polish as well.
"What struck me maybe most of all was the way the parents thanked everybody for what they had done for their son.
"For the care and respect they had shown - that even, I suppose, their lowest lowest moment they were able to think of other people and show gratitude.
"Everybody is touched by what has happened, it is so incredibly awful.
"But none of us should ever forget the pain is the family, and what they have to carry is such an incredibly heavy burden".
