Dublin stabbing eye witness Siobhán Kearney: 'We got the knife off him... and formed a ring around him'

Garda at the scene of the stabbing near a school in Dublin city centre on Thursday. Picture: Colin Keegan/Collins Photos

Eye witness Siobhan Kearney was attending the Stardust inquests at the Rotunda Hospital in the north inner city on Thursday afternoon when she overheard screaming and children crying on Parnell Street across the road.

The 60-year-old from Co Kildare ran to the scene and immediately called for help.

“I saw everything that happened,” she told the Irish Examiner. “I saw a man stab the children. I jumped in and stopped it; we all jumped in. I immediately defended the children.

“They were all screaming, the teachers were screaming, people were walking by not really sure what was going on. It wasn’t registering with everyone at that moment. This man was just waving this knife around, we got the knife off him and pushed it away.

“We then formed a ring around him. It was horrifying. In all my years I’ve never seen anything like this, children have never been in such danger. I’ve never seen that in Dublin in my life. That is not how children are treated.

“I had 43 years of the Stardust, my brother Liam was 18 when he died, so I have learned to keep calm, and focus, the kids were my concern, but I pushed everyone away to keep the children safe.

“It was chaos and I tried to bring some order to it. The man was speaking in a different language as he shouted at everyone, but I saw him stabbing the children. The ambulances were there in around four minutes and loads of hospital staff ran to the scene from the Rotunda. More ambulances started to arrive.

“The first responders, they ran to the scene, and they didn’t know what was happening, but they are the true heroes.

“I’m a mother of three with a 9-year-old granddaughter. I was thinking of her and what I would want someone else to do if that was her. My prayers are with those little children and all the teachers who suffered today.

“It’s when I saw all the blue lights and people rushing around, I got such a fright then, it started to register.

“The Coroner adjourned the inquests at the Stardust until Friday.

“The gardaí have been in touch and I will be making a statement. My focus was all about the children. I hope they’ll be ok”.