GARDAÍ HAVE RELEASED family photos of Louise Daniels with her husband and sons who drowned in the pier tragedy in Buncrana, Co Donegal yesterday.
She was in England for the weekend.
Her husband, Seán McGrotty, was driving an Audi Q7 jeep when it entered the water at Buncrana at about 7.30pm on Sunday.
Their sons Mark (12) and Evan (8) and daughter Rionaghac-Ann (four months) were in the vehicle, along with their grandmother Ruth Daniels and her daughter Jodie Lee-Daniels (14).
The baby girl was passed out of the jeep’s window to a bystander who had jumped into the water to help. She survived and is said to be “doing very well” in hospital. The remaining five family members all drowned in the tragedy.
The family’s home in St Eithne’s Park in Ballymagroarty, Derry is now the scene of “total desolation”, according to the local parish priest.
Davitt Walsh, the man who rescued Rionaghac-Ann, has spoken of those harrowing moments he witnessed:
The younger child was trying to get out the back. The father knew – deep down – he knew I was only going to be able to save one person. The last thing he said, he handed it to me and said, ‘Save the baby’. He went back and stayed with his family and the car just disappeared.
The funerals are expected to take place later this week.
- with reporting from Cianan Brennan and Sinéad O’Carroll
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