Woman who lost five family members in drowning tragedy wants surviving daughter to 'live life'

Woman who lost five family members in drowning tragedy wants surviving daughter to 'live life' 6 hours ago Keiron TourishBBC News NI north west reporter A decade has passed since Louise James returned from a hen weekend feeling a sense of dread that a tragedy would unfold.

She arrived home to hear almost her whole family had drowned after the car they were in slid off a pier following a day at the seaside.

Her partner Sean McGrotty, 49, and their two sons - 12-year-old Mark and eight-year-old Evan - died as well as her mother Ruth, 57, and her 14-year-old sister Jodie.

The only survivor was Louise and Sean's four-month-old daughter Rioghnach, who was passed out of the car to a former footballer who swam out to rescue her.

Louise said she wanted the 10th anniversary of the tragedy to be a celebration of their lives, and that she still thought about them and the happy memories of their lives together every single day.

She said she lived every day to make Rioghnach happy.

"She's such a social butterfly," she said.

"I've always said she can't live in the shadows of her brothers or the shadow of what happened. "We need to move forward and she needs to live – to live life. "She's everything to me and her brothers were everything to me as well. "I love her just as much as I loved them. "

The family had spent 20 March 2016 in Bucrana in County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland, about a 30-minute drive from the Irish border.

The town is popular with visitors from the north-west of Northern Ireland and the family had travelled from their home in Londonderry.

That evening their car slid down the slipway of a pier and into Lough Swilly.

Desperate attempts were made to rescue them, but only Rioghnach could be saved; the others died after their Audi Q7 entered the water.

Louise had been in Liverpool on a hen weekend and when she arrived back in Belfast she got a call to tell her what had happened. "I went to the baggage area and Joshua, my brother, had rang me and he told me that they had gone," she said.

"I didn't want to come home.

I just wanted to end my life there and then. But he said to me to promise him that I would meet him in Letterkenny hospital because Rioghnach was fine.

"We didn't know that she was fine then but we knew she was in the hospital. "

She said the tragedy of the day remained ever present as she tried to cope with the devastating loss.

"From that time I always said it was mind over matter," Louise said.

"I remember my doctor trying to give me anti-depressants and it was no, definitely not. "I don't take anything. I need to feel everything that's going on and I think that's a determination of getting through everything. " She says she did not know how she had coped with the scale of the loss. I tried to ask myself that too," she said. "You get up in morning and you put your feet on the ground and that's another day. "

Algae on the slipway An inquest into the deaths was held at the end of 2017 and the jury found the family had drowned due to misadventure.

A garda (Irish police officer) told the inquest the slipway was "extremely slippery with thick algae".

"I'm angry because the slipway wasn't cleaned," Louise said.

"It should have been cleaned. If it had been cleaned then this wouldn't have happened. "It's full of algae and precautions should have been put in place for every slipway to be cleaned. "There's no individual that's responsible for this. "If the council had cleaned it then it would have been prevented. " In response to a request for comment, Donegal County Council directed the BBC to the Donegal Coroner's office.

At the time, the council said that when "the facts surrounding this unfortunate tragedy are established, the council will review them and determine if any specific measures need to be taken".

The inquest also heard Sean McGrotty had a blood alcohol level of 159mg, above the Republic of Ireland's drink-driving limit of 50mg.

However, a pathologist told the inquest she could not say what level of impairment a driver with that level of alcohol could have.

The jury also recommended that Irish Water Safety take a prominent role with other agencies in implementing best practice in relation to safety at piers and slipways.

Davitt Walsh, the former footballer who swam out to rescue Rionaghac, was later awarded the Michael Heffernan Gold Medal for Marine Gallantry.

Louise said she was extremely grateful to him and was also indebted to the other emergency services for their efforts on that day.

"Every memory I have is happy.

Every picture I have they are smiling. "They loved each other and that's what it's about. It's about loving life and living it