A toddler, known in Limerick as "the boy who could fly" warmed hearts in his native Limerick city tonight as he switched on the Christmas lights amid freezing temperatures.

Neil Shanahan, 3, who survived a fall from the sixth-storey balcony of the Limerick Strand Hotel in July, has been chosen to switch on the Christmas lights with the city’s Mayor Kieran O’Hanlon, it has been announced.