{"id":359970,"date":"2026-03-22T22:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T22:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/359970\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T22:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T22:20:08","slug":"mother-who-lost-five-family-members-in-buncrana-pier-tragedy-overwhelmed-by-support-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/359970\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother who lost five family members in Buncrana pier tragedy \u2018overwhelmed\u2019 by support \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mother who lost five members of her family in a pier tragedy 10 years ago has said it \u201cfeels like it was yesterday\u201d as hundreds came out for a memorial walk.<\/p>\n

Louise James\u2019s partner Sean McGrotty, their two sons Mark, 12, and Evan, eight, her mother, Ruth, and her 14-year-old sister Jodie died when their SUV sank after sliding off a slipway<\/a> in Buncrana, Co Donegal, in March 2016.<\/p>\n

The only survivor was four-month-old Rioghnach-Ann, daughter of McGrotty and James.<\/p>\n

McGrotty handed his baby daughter through the broken driver\u2019s side window, just moments before the vehicle sank. Former footballer Davitt Walsh<\/a>, who swam out into the harbour in an effort to save the six occupants, took the baby from her father.<\/p>\n

With the 10-year anniversary of their deaths approaching, hundreds attended a memorial walk in Buncrana wearing red and white.<\/p>\n

Before the walkers set off, a minute\u2019s silence was held and a family friend sang (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.<\/p>\n

James said she felt \u201coverwhelmed\u201d at the support and love from the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery overwhelmed. It was a fantastic success, it was amazing, the sun came out it was beautiful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery, very, very overwhelmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt went exactly how I wanted it to go, with laughter and fun and everyone smiling and remembering them, that\u2019s what I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Buncrana pier rescuer tells how father shouted \u2018save our baby\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It is understood the vehicle lost grip on a thick blanket of algae coating the slipway and slid into the waters of Lough Swilly.<\/p>\n

There were no signs at the slipway warning of the dangers of slipping, and a gate designed to control crowds using a summer ferry service in the popular tourist spot was left open.<\/p>\n

It was used by people watching the sun going down despite dangers, which were highlighted during the inquest in 2017.<\/p>\n

James said Rioghnach-Anne frequently come down to the pier to remember their family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe come down and we\u2019ll do the walk,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the walk along the shoreline, so it\u2019s beautiful, you know, it\u2019s a very peaceful walk and Rioghnach will play in the play park, so it\u2019s really nice where her brothers played as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ten years on, James said the tragedy \u201cfeels like it happened yesterday\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill feels like it was only yesterday so it\u2019s very overwhelming but a sadness too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Donations for the walk were collected for the RNLI, and the walk finished at Lough Swilly RNLI lifeboat station.<\/p>\n

James said \u201cit was lovely\u201d to see the people of \u201cDerry and Donegal\u201d pulling together.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut not just Derry and Donegal \u2013 it was the whole of Ireland, because there was people here from Cork and Wicklow, and so lovely to see them all and just to be here supporting us in what we wanted to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt was great just to support the RNLI and the good work that they really do. And this is all for them, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mother who lost five members of her family in a pier tragedy 10 years ago has said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1485,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-359970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-donegal","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}