THE DERRY mum who lost five members of her family last Sunday in the tragedy in Buncrana has spoken of how she knew something was wrong that evening.
Louise James was speaking in an interview for British newspaper ‘The Mail On Sunday’.
Louise told the paper she had a premonition that something had befallen her family early that evening, before the dreadful news was made public.
“I just knew…I got a feeling at 7.30pm,” she told reporter Alison O’Reilly.
“I knew something was wrong. I rang them back but their phones were off.
“My brother rang (to break the news) but I just knew. My friends rang. The police couldn’t give names. Then it was on the news. The police were on the phone to me and at my mum’s house with my brother.
“I’m not usually intuitive but I just knew. Evan was intuitive, he knew I was having a girl when I got pregnant. He said I would have a wee girl and then when I had her he wanted to call her Rosie.
“Evan had a muscle-wasting disease – he was to be measured for a wheelchair last Monday.”
Louise spoke out to praise again Davitt Walsh, the Kerrykeel man who swam into Lough Swilly last Sunday to save her baby.
Her baby’s saviour told her that he was helped by the child’s own survival instinct that kept her leaning away from the water as he swam to safety holding her aloft.
“She hasn’t a mark on her and she hasn’t a clue,” Louise told the paper.
“‘She didn’t even get a cold.”
Louise lost her partner, her two sons, her mother and her sister in the accident.
She had only gone to Liverpool last weekend after being persuaded to do so by her family.
She said it was the first time she had been away for more than a few hours.
When her flight was delayed she spoke to Evan who told her: ‘You are the best mammy in the world.’ It would be the last time she would ever speak to him.
“I was only talking to them on the phone five minutes before the accident. Evan came on,’ she said. ‘He said, “When are you coming home?” I said, “I’ll be home. Have a bath, you’ve school in the morning. I’ll be home don’t worry.”
“He said: “I’m going to give you a tight squeezy hug.” ’
Louise has since learned that her daughter, incredibly, helped to save herself by arching her little body away from the water.
“Davitt swam with her carried up with one arm and she arched her body,” said Louise.
“She put her head back so that he was able to get a good grip on her. He said she kept looking down at him as if to say, “Here you…’’ ’
Louise says she told Davitt: “Don’t blame yourself that you did not do more – we are so grateful for what you did. It could easily have been seven deaths, not five.”
“It’s difficult. We lost our sister not long ago. Now this. But she, she was meant to be”, she said looking at baby Rionaghac-Ann.
* A vigil takes place at 7pm Sunday evening in Buncrana and in Strathfoyle.