Boy who died after river fall will be laid to rest today
Hundreds of people sympathised with the parents of James Casey Butler, 7, in Midleton last night where his remains were lying in repose at his grandparent’s house at Avoncore Place.
His body will be removed at 1pm today for a Mass of the Angels at 2pm at the Church of the Most Holy Rosary.
Mourners will be led by his parents, Edel and Paul, and his grandparents, Michael and Eileen Casey and Michael and Liz Butler.
James was rescued from the Owenacurra river on Saturday evening after he fell in while playing with friends in the Tír Cluain housing estate.
The children gained access to the river bank through a gap in a fence near The Green area of the estate.
Two local men who pulled him from the river, and an off-duty first responder paramedic who was on the scene within seven minutes of the alarm being raised, performed CPR on James on the river bank before he was rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital.
He was airlifted a few hours later to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin where, despite intense medical efforts, he died on Sunday evening.
The shocked residents of the Tír Cluain estate have repeated calls on the authorities to repair gaps in the fence, and to restrict access to the river bank.
Cork County Council has insisted that the estate is a private development.
A spokesman for the receivers of John J Fleming Construction Company, the firm which developed the estate, said they are “looking into all aspects of this tragic matter and engaging with the relevant authorities”.
The Bishop of Cloyne, William Crean, said he was deeply saddened by the tragedy and has offered his sympathies to James’s family.
