Impossible to understand - Tragedy in Buncrana

EVERYONE on this island, especially if they have children, cannot fail but to be moved by Sunday’s tragedy in Buncrana, Co Donegal. Almost a whole family, a whole set of dreams and hopes like your own, were washed away.

Relatives of the five victims have spoken of their “unspeakable heartbreak” and, as pictures of the victims appeared on news sites, their very ordinariness and familiarity — they looked just like us — made the sense of incomprehension all the deeper. One woman — Louise McGrotty — lost her partner, two of her children, her mother, and her youngest sister. Those who died were Seán McGrotty, 49; his sons Mark, 12, and Evan, 8; his mother-in-law Ruth Daniels, 59; and Ruth’s daughter Jodie Lee Daniels, 14.

Louise McGrotty had just returned from England that night to be told that her husband, her two sons, her mother, and her sister had been lost. The circumstances have yet to be fully established but, essentially, a happy family was on a Sunday outing enjoying a beautiful spring day on a pier when their car slid into the sea.

Despite the very best, and very prompt, efforts of the rescue services nothing could be done. Imagine the fear gripping those stuck in the car as four-month-old Rionaghac-Ann’s father Seán passed her out the car window to a man who came to their rescue. It is almost beyond imagining. The very randomness of it makes it even more so as there is no rhyme or reason to a tragedy like this