Berkeley balcony survivor: My birthday will always mark friends’ deaths

The Dublin student whose birthday was being celebrated when the apartment balcony in California collapsed killing six young people last year, cried yesterday as she told a US hearing her birthday will always mark the anniversary of their deaths.

Aoife Beary’s testimony to the California State Assembly’s Appropriations Committee outlined the pain she had gone through and was still suffering, but also allowed her to express her despair at the deaths of those so close to her.

The collapse claimed the lives of Olivia Burke, Eoghan Culligan, Ashley Donohue, Lorcán Miller, Niccolai Schuster, and Eimear Walsh.