The woman who lost her mother, husband, sister and two sons in the Buncrana Pier tragedy says she now lives for her 10-year-old daughter, who survived.
Louise James spoke publicly about the incident for the first time last night.
She told RTÉ that she is hosting a charity 5km walk and a gala to raise funds for the RNLI and to thank the people who helped on the night of the tragedy almost ten years ago.
On 20 March 2016, 49-year-old Sean McGrotty, his sons Mark and Evan, aged 12 and 8, their grandmother Ruth Daniels (57), and her 14-year-old daughter Jodie Lee Daniels drowned when the parked SUV they were in slipped on algae into Lough Swilly.
The sole survivor was a four-month-old baby girl, who was passed out of the car window by her father to passerby, Davitt Walsh, who entered the water in a bid to rescue the family.
During the interview, Louise outlined the close relationship she shares with Rioghnach, her daughter, and how she has inherited many of her brothers’ traits.
She also spoke about the day the incident happened and the gut feeling she had at the airport, about to fly home from a hen party, that something was wrong.
Louise had been speaking with her 14-year-old sister Jodie on the phone 20 minutes earlier, who was playing in the park with Mark and Evan, before suddenly feeling as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest.
She tried to phone Jodie back, but there was no answer. She then contacted her brother, who said there had been an accident, but he believed it involved a car with two men inside.
A second phone call after her flight would then confirm her worst fear.
Louise talked about her grief and the guilt she lives with for continuing her life and for going away that weekend, which she recognises she shouldn’t feel.
The mother also shared the emotional turmoil she endured, having to host a wake for five people, and the upheaval of going from a busy household of five to becoming a single mother to an infant overnight. She shared that she had sleepless nights when she would “walk the boards” and felt lost after losing the people you turn to in tough times, both her husband and her mother.
Louise wants the ten-year anniversary to mark the beginning of a new chapter in her and Rioghnach’s life.
Details of the remembrance walk being held on the 22nd of March can be found HERE.
