NICOLE Naumburger, the German au pair who gave her life to save the 13-month-old Irish girl she was minding, was outgoing, eager to make friends and was planning to return home to study law this summer.

A MIRACLE, a tragedy, life and death — the drama that unfolded on Main Street, Carrigaline, Co Cork, yesterday left many in tears, most in shock, and a town in grief.

IT was an all too familiar sight this week — passersby laying bouquets to mark the scene of an accident, last weekend in Dublin, yesterday in Cork.