TWO DRUG ARRESTS AFTER SAD DEATH OF A `SPIRITED' GIRL

Gardai in Bray, Co Wicklow, have arrested two men in connection with the
supply of ecstasy in the seaside town.

The men were questioned in Bray Garda station and have been released
without charge, but a file on the case has been sent to the Director of
Public Prosecutions.

The arrest came in the wake of the death of a 17-year-old girl last weekend
after she had taken just one ecstasy tablet.

Alison Davis was the second eldest of four children of John and Eileen
Davis, who live on the Fassaroe Estate.

Last Friday night the family celebrated Eileen's 51st birthday with a party
at their home. It was almost 4am before they went to bed, and Alison and a
couple of her friends slept in the sitting room. At around 10am the
youngest child in the family, Lilian (7), tried to wake her older sister
but got no response.

Despite desperate attempts by her parents and neighbours to recussitate
her, Alison was pronounced dead a short time later at Loughlinstown hospital.

Funeral

Friends of the dead girl later told her parents and gardai that she had
swallowed just one ecstasy tablet. It was her first time to experiment with
any drug. She was a keen sportswoman and played GAA on the women's team for
both Bray Emmets and also for the Co Wicklow team. She had successfully
completed a coaching diploma and, bearing in mind her love of the sport,
her parents decided to bury her in her track suit, sporting the Wicklow
colours.

Representatives of the various sporting bodies she was associated with
formed a guard of honour at her funeral.

She had spent the early part of her summer holidays from school giving up
her free time to coach other youngsters from the area. Last night, parents
on the estate were trying to come to terms with the loss of the girl they
described as "good-natured, kindness itself."

And while her young charges grieved for their coach, the teachers at St
Thomas's community college opened the school to provide counselling
services for her classmates.

Neil OCallaghan, who taught French to Alison, described her as "a very
spirited girl, opinionated and not afraid to speak her mind."

He said she was well-known in the school and both teachers and pupils were
still in shock.

Video

Alison's family have always been known as anti-drugs people, and Alison
herself had fronted a school video which advised young people not to be
tempted by drugs. Alison's father was one of the organisers of the
anti-drugs marches on the Fassaroe Estate, an area which has been the
subject of serious drug-dealing in the past.

Last night John Davis told the Irish Independent that it was about time
that drug dealers were taken off the streets. "My daughter is in heaven
now. I only hope that there's a lesson to be learned from this. Even if one
life is saved, that would be something. I wouldn't put my worst enemy
through what we went through and what we will have to go through for the
rest of our lives," he said.

Mr Davis said he had taken the decision to go public on how Alison died
because he wanted to warn all parents and children of the dangers of
ecstasy and the fact that even one tablet could sometimes kill.

There are no reliable statistics on the level of ecstasy use in Ireland,
but in Britain it is estimated that up to 1m tablets are consumed every week.

Alison's parents are now awaiting the results of a toxicology report on
their daughter.