Mother and grandfather relive their efforts to revive drowning toddler

THE efforts to revive a toddler who died after falling into a water tank were recalled at an inquest the coroner called “one of the most tragic accidents I have ever come across”.

Drogheda Coroner’s Court heard how Patrick McDonnell, 20 months, had gone to collect eggs with his mother Caroline and grandfather James on the family farm at Roughgrange, Donore, Co Meath, on October 19, 2010.

Patrick was playing beside his mother as she sorted eggs, when at some point he went out of sight.