INDEPENDENT KERRY TD Michael Healy-Rae has made a statement on the incident involving a cow which left him hospitalised last Sunday.
The accident happened at about 8.30pm on Sunday evening when the TD was “attacked by a cow after the calving” according to Healy-Rae’s nephew Johnny.
He was taken to Cork University Hospital for treatment and was kept in for observation.
Speaking to the Pat Kenny Show today on Newstalk Healy-Rae outlined the severity of the situation, in which he could very well have lost his life.
“She got me unawares and she got me up against the doors, crushed like and she gave me a good old going over,” he said.
And she got me on the ground, and when you’re on the ground there’s only so much time that you can last at that.
She was giving me a right doing. The last thing I remember is her actually standing on my face.
Healy-Rae will be released from hospital today with minor injuries including fractured ribs. His recovery will mean he misses today’s sitting of the Dáil however.
He said that but for the intervention of his son and a neighbour he may not have survived the encounter at all.
“It was only that my son Kevin was in another shed, and a good friend of mine, a neighbour John Reilly was in a pen not too far away and they realised what was happening,” he said.
Only for the two of them being there I wouldn’t talking to you today.
The independent TD expressed his “shock” at the online abuse he had received in the wake of the accident.
“It’s absolutely frightening what people write online when something like this happens. I couldn’t actually believe it,” he said.
People saying ‘oh good enough for him’ all this sort of stuff and ‘I hope the cow isn’t too badly injured.’
Statement
Separately, Healy-Rae released a statement this afternoon in which he thanked all those who had taken care of him since his accident.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank so much everyone who has been so kind to me over the last number of days since my accident,” the TD said in a statement this afternoon.
I am so thankful to the management and staff in Cork University Hospital for their great care since Sunday and also to the gardaí who were so good to me and my family on Sunday night.
I am being released today from Cork University Hospital and the extent of my injuries are not too serious just a few fractured ribs, but I will just have to take it easy for a number of days.
Healy-Rae also took time to sympathise with the bereaved relatives of the McGrotty and Daniels families in Derry following last Sunday’s tragedy in Buncrana, together with the people of Brussels following this morning’s terror attacks:
“Thanks again so much to everyone who have been so kind to me and I would also like to say my thoughts and prayers are with the McGrotty and Daniels family after their tragedy and to the people of Brussels this morning, may god bless them all, Michael.”
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