'She was in the wrong place at the wrong time': Mother of five-year-old Dublin stabbing victim speaks out
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- This article is part of our Best of 2024 collection. It was originally published in May. Find more stories like this here.
On 23 November, Dublin was set ablaze. Anger raged as rioters seized streets in the capital, attacking gardaí and setting fire to public transport.
The riots came about after a child was senselessly attacked earlier in the day. Now the mother of the child, neither of whom can be identified for legal reasons, wants the world to know, none of it was justified and it wasn’t done in her little girl’s name.
"We do not want hate to be the narrative of what happened to our daughter," she tells the , six months on from the day that changed her family’s life forever. “The riots were nothing to do with our daughter, which was anger and hate”, says the mother of the ‘strong-willed little fighter’ who remains in a Dublin hospital nearly six months on.
The little girl was left with life-changing injuries after being stabbed on Parnell Street on that overcast November day. After the attack, Dublin city centre quickly descended into a violent hellscape, as rioters burned, looted and destroyed.
They used the attack on the little girl, two of her classmates, and their creche minder as an excuse to rampage across the city. In her first interview since that dark day, the mother, in a softly spoken voice, says she does not want anyone to "respond with hate” to the incident.
Her daughter, she says, was simply “in the wrong place at the wrong time". “The main message we have is that we don’t want any hate over this and that hate only generates more hate," the mother says.
“We don’t have time for hate, we just want to focus on our daughter,” she said, speaking under the condition of anonymity. "I never wanted to receive that call."
The girl's parents met in Ireland and decided to start a family here. The child’s father is Eastern European, and the mother grew up in South America.
Like most young couples starting out, they secured a home and employment in Dublin and were delighted when they discovered they were expecting their first child in 2018. “We decided to remain in Ireland because we knew it was a safer place to raise children,” said the mother.
The couple decided to send their daughter to an Irish-speaking school because the child is already multilingual — Irish is her fourth language.
“She was born in the Rotunda Hospital. She loves Ireland and this is her home.
“She used to love going out in the rain, splashing in puddles, and being out in the wind. She never really liked too much heat. We knew she was more than ready for national school. She is very sociable and a great communicator.
“Most people believe her school is full of Irish children only, but there is a big mix of pupils from all backgrounds there.”
The little girl was only a few months into Junior Infants’ class in her new school when the attack happened, shortly after lunch on a bright winter's day. She was settling into school well and had made many new friends.
On the morning of Thursday, November 23, the little girl was dropped off at after-school with all of her classmates, as normal. It was a typical day.
At around 1.30pm, the kids, having finished school, formed a line with their creche minder, when the attack happened.
The mother, tears flowing down her face, said:
“I was at work and my phone rang. The creche owner told me my daughter was stabbed.
"I work in the city centre, and I ran non-stop to her school. I saw my daughter, she was there lying on the ground being worked on by medical staff.
"There was so much shock and numbness. I wanted to go to her, but all I did was stand there because that was the moment my daughter needed medical attention.
“I stood back and let them work on her. I called my husband and then I saw her being taken away in the ambulance.” Two of the girl's schoolmates, a boy aged five and a girl aged six, were also injured in the attack but were discharged from hospital in the days afterwards.
Creche worker Leanne Flynn was seriously injured and wasn't discharged until earlier this year.
The five-year-old girl was critically injured, undergoing emergency surgery to keep her alive.
Her distraught parents quickly made their way to the nearby Temple Street Children’s Hospital and waited in agony while their child went into emergency theatre.
Only five years earlier, she had taken her first breath, just 600 metres away at the Rotunda Hospital, and now medics were battling to keep her breathing.
“We didn’t ask for updates even though we wanted them,” said Mum.
“We needed the doctors to focus on our child who was in surgery for three hours.
The woman recalls having to relay the dreadful news to her family back home in South America. The parents rang relatives from the hospital while their daughter was undergoing surgery.
"It was very difficult to break the news to my family, at first," she said. "My father became emotional and took his time to speak with me over the phone. My brother made and received calls for me when I couldn’t, they gave me a lot of help. "Other family members and friends sent their love and positive vibes."
Her mother has now come to Ireland to help her. “I’m happy my mother is here now."
After months of treatment, she describes her daughter as an “angel” and a “warrior”, who has fought back from the edge of death.
She remains in Temple Street Children’s Hospital but is now in the rehabilitation phase of her journey, and the family say they are taking her recovery day by day.
“We had to explain to her that she was in hospital. When she first woke up from surgery the first thing we told her was that she is safe, and that we are with her. There was confusion for her at first, but reassurance was the most important thing. We do not know if she remembers the incident.
"The hospital has been a blessing too. They are doing all they can. But you are still the mother, and you have to be there to help them understand what my daughter is signalling to us.”
As she wiped away the tears, she said: “It is good to cry. I allow myself to cry once a week.” The family are in hospital every day, taking turns by their child’s bedside.
“The hardest part was watching her in pain,” said Mum. “But she is on the ward now and has gone through so much. When she was in intensive care and on oxygen that was extremely hard for her, you feel helpless.
“After three weeks, doctors said they wanted to remove the tubes to see how she would manage. 'We have to try', they said, and we agreed.
"They placed an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth, and I knew she was struggling, and I said, ‘Can we remove the mask?’ Once it was taken away, she settled down and has been breathing on her own since then.
“She is non-verbal right now and there is no prognosis. It is too early to say, but my daughter is not someone who goes backwards, she keeps moving forward.”
Her daughter is now communicating with her family and medical team "using her eyes" to tell them what she wants. “I know when she does or doesn’t want something, she sometimes rolls her eyes. Even the doctors can see that."
In February, she was returned to the Intensive Care Unit for pain management. She is now back on the ward. The family are in a more settled routine now that their daughter is out of immediate danger.
“I’ve gone back to work for a few hours every week and so has my husband."
She said there have been “great milestones for our little warrior, she has started on feeds now (not orally yet) and moving her arms a good bit.
"She is enjoying her Irish lessons with the hospital school and loves watching Paddington 1 and 2 for laughs. These are huge achievements.
“The future is unknown, but it’s only been a few months, so for now, our daughter is where she needs to be. We are with her, and we want everyone to know we are very grateful for all their support.
“We have to keep going for her because she wants to keep going, and she is telling us that very clearly.
“My husband and I help each other. When he is down, I help him, and he then helps me. She is very resilient and has shown us how determined and strong she is. We have to match her determination.
"We talk to her and ask her things and she can definitely hear and understand us, and we are being guided by her. The questions regarding her future and ours are there.
"Despite all the mights and maybes, we have to believe in her, mainly because she does.”
Even with all the heartache, there was not the slightest hint of anger or resentment from the parents. Instead, the mother said: “I am so grateful for the huge generosity and support we have received, and I never underestimate the power of prayer.”
While no one can truly imagine the pain endured by the family, the child’s mother said at times, she feels guilty over the support they have received when “other parents are suffering with sick and injured children too".
“I have spoken to one of the other children’s parents. I haven’t spoken to anyone else yet, but I don’t want to put on any pressure. It is a lot to deal with. Everyone deals with things in their own way."
Since her daughter’s admission to Temple Street, the family has remained in regular contact with her school, which they described as “extremely supportive".
“They are very helpful and have given regular updates to the families there. I am in contact with some parents. At Christmas, I went to the school with gifts for the children from my daughter, I felt that was important.
"I did also speak to the Deliveroo cyclist, Caio Benicio. A number of GoFundMe pages were also set up including one called Barróg do Chailín Beag (A Hug for A Little Girl)."
Roisin Fitzgerald runs the page — a family friend, who is helping to raise funds for the little girl and her family.
Despite the devastating trauma they have suffered, the child’s mother was deeply mindful that well-wishers across the world wanted to know how her daughter was doing in hospital.
With that in mind, she began to write inspiring updates on the GoFundMe page, including a beautiful poem called ‘Land of memory and hope.’
It includes the words:
During our two-hour conversation, this remarkable, compassionate woman displays a powerful sense of empathy for others.
“It’s about pain, we are all feeling pain over our children," she said.
Adjusting to a new way of life has taken its toll on the family. “She is not the same child even though she is our child, so we are learning to live a new way of life and we know she is in there. We just have to wait for her to be ready to come out.
“It’s just going to be a very slow road and we don’t know what will happen. We have moved to a more adaptable house for her, and we are just taking each day as it comes. We take all the help we can get, we can't afford not to.
“She was always a positive child. My mother is in the hospital now with her and I’ll go shortly. There is always someone there. Life has to go on, we have no choice, and it is very early days, but she has made a lot of progress."
A 50-year-old man, Riad Bouchaker, appeared in Dublin District Court in December, charged with the attempted murder of three children and the assault of the creche worker.