The three sisters injured in the horrific M9 head–on collision that claimed the lives of five teenagers have ‘a long recovery ahead’, friends have revealed.

Although Niamh and Alma Kinsella and their younger sister Ella remain seriously injured, those close to the siblings are growing more hopeful the three young women, aged in their thirties and twenties, will make a full recovery.

Family and relatives are maintaining bedside vigils as medical teams at three Dublin hospitals – Tallaght University, St Vincent’s and Children’s Health Ireland – continue to care for Niamh, Ella, Alma and Alma’s seven–year–old son Yemi.

A friend told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘They have a long, long recovery ahead of them. 

‘One of them has spinal injuries and there are a lot of broken bones and young Yemi broke a leg. 

‘But people are relieved that none of them are in a brain specialist hospital so that means none of them are brain–damaged.

‘God forbid there’s a change. We think they will recover but how long that is going to take no one knows. Their injuries may be life–altering but to the extent they may be life–altering, well, no one knows that at the moment.’

Another friend added: ‘All I’ll say is, it has been touch and go and they have moved from critical to seriously injured. 

‘There were surgeries during the week. Young Yemi has a broken leg and he asked for his cast to be painted red because he is a Manchester United supporter.’

The first person on the scene of the horror crash – which occurred in the early hours of last Sunday morning – was among the thousand or so people who gathered at St Clare’s church in Graiguecullen for a vigil on Friday evening to pray for the survivors’ full recovery.

Niamh and Alma Kinsella with their sister Ella Hendricken

Grace Kelly was also on the way to Dublin airport on Sunday and would have been the first car to arrive on the ramp leading to the motorway after the head–on collision.

Others who attended the hour–long religious service included Alma and Niamh’s father Pat, their uncle John and their aunt Maura.

A friend explained: ‘Grace arrived before the ambulance or the paramedics and the guards told her that an accident had happened. She could hear the little boy screaming in the back seat.

‘He has a broken leg so he must have been screaming in pain.

‘The two older girls were unconscious and the third woman was out of the car. If Grace was ten minutes earlier, it could have been her. There was nothing she could do for them because she isn’t a paramedic.’