Louise James has appeared on the Tommy Tiernan Show, almost 10 years on from the Buncrana Pier tragedy which claimed five of her family members’ lives.
Louise, who is from Derry, lost her partner Sean McGrotty (49), sons Mark (12) and 8-year-old Evan, her 14-year-old sister Jodie-Lee and mother Ruth Daniels (58), when Mr McGrotty’s car slid on algae and entered the waters of Lough Swilly following a family day out on the 20th of March 2016.
Her four-month-old baby Rioghnach was the only survivor, rescued by a passer-by, Davitt Walsh, who bravely entered the water to try and help.
Louise told the story of the moments before the tragedy to Tommy Tiernan, saying she had a gut feeling something wasn’t right as she was travelling home from being on a hen party.
“I got up on the Sunday and I had phoned Sean and said to him ‘I just wanna come home.’ I didn’t leave the boys much, they were mine, I’d just had Rioghnach who was four months old.”
“He said ‘enjoy being away, you’re coming home tonight. You’ll be fine, the boys will see you when you’re home.’”
She later spoke to her sister Jodie on the phone as she was waiting for her flight home, moments before tragedy struck when the family were playing in the park, near the pier that would claim their lives.
“It was about fifteen, twenty minutes later… I felt like somebody had ripped my heart out of my chest. That’s the only way to describe it.”
“I immediately rang her back and there was nothing, no connection, and I started to panic. (I said) ‘I know there’s something wrong.’”
“I phoned my brother and he asked me if I’d seen anything on social media. He said that there (was) an accident in Buncrana.”
However with details being few and far between at that time, nothing was known about the car that had entered the pier – so Louise switched her phone off for the flight.
When back on the ground, she saw the news on social media that it had been a black SUV that had entered the pier – the same car that Sean had been driving.
“I just remember running off that plane, as I was running I switched my phone back on and that’s when my brother phoned me to tell me.”
“He said ‘are you listening to me?’ and I just said ‘I know.’”
“I (asked) if they were all gone, and he said ‘Rioghnach’s at the hospital, I don’t know what state she’s in, but they’re all gone.”
“We went straight in to see Rioghnagh – and my mum always used to say that ‘if I die, I’ll show you a sign… I love elephants, so my sign will be an Elephant. If I ever die and you see an elephant, you know that’s me.’”
“I’d gone in and the nurse said ‘I don’t know if you give Rioghnagh a dummy or not, but I’ve given her (one) because she’s been crying.”
“And on the front of the dummy was a wee elephant, and I just thought ‘right, that’s my sign, my mum’s here and she’s okay.’”
Louise says that the numb feeling that she felt at the end of that tragic day still persists a decade later.
“It’s still here now, it’s still here. You laugh all day, you carry on, you cry all night. You feel guilty for living, you feel guilty for telling jokes, laughing, being involved, going to parties, but then that’s not fair on Rioghnach. I still have to live a life for her.”
When asked about Tommy about her daughter Rioghnach, who is now ten years old, Louise said that she is her “everything.”
“She’s fantastic, she’s her two brothers mixed into one along with a wee pinch of her. She’s my everything. I exist for her.”
Louise also detailed their visits to the pier, and tributes Rioghnach has left there.
“She went down, she’ll put a Derry City scarf on the gate, and write their names on it, and then she’ll ask if we can go down and check if it’s still there.”
“She misses the fact that she has two big brothers that aren’t here. She goes; ‘that’s not fair unfair that they got to know me but I didn’t get to know them,’ but I (tell her), ‘you do know them, they’re basically you.’”
The instant impact of the tragedy on Louise’s day-to-day life was also immense.
“You go from being in a busy household to being on your own with a four-month-old baby.”
“The person that you want to talk to is no longer there, the person that you want to give you a hug and tell you everything’s going to be okay is no longer there, you think that could be your partner or your mum – but when both of them’s gone, you’re left standing going – ‘What do I do? Who do I turn to? Who do I talk to?’ – you’re left talking to a four-month-old baby.”
As the tenth anniversary of the tragedy approaches in March, a special fundraiser for the RNLI has been set up by Louise in honour of the five family members she lost on that day.
There will be a 5k walk in Buncrana on Sunday the 22nd of March at 11am, which will start and end at the car park on Buncrana’s shore front, heading to the start of Porthaw Beach and then returning, a distance of approximately 5km. There will be a refreshment break on the return walk at Lough Swilly RNLI Station at Neds Point in Buncrana.
Tickets are available to buy now at: https://eventmaster.ie/event/62zZhEpT5G
A Crowdfunder has also been set up and can be viewed at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/in-memory-of-the-buncrana-pier-tragedy-march-2016
All funds raised will go directly to the RNLI.
Louise James appears on Tommy Tiernan Show 10 years on from Buncrana Pier tragedy was last modified: February 1st, 2026 by Daniel Brennan
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