A tearful Davitt Walsh who rescued the baby from the sinking Audi at Buncrana Pier. (North West Newspix)
THE valiant young man who heroically rescued a baby from the Donegal drowning disaster has said he only wishes he could have saved more of the family.
Brave former Derry City plaer Davitt Walsh stripped to his underwear and risked his own life to swim 40 metres out to sea to reach a jeep which had slipped off the pier at Buncrana.
And he tells how Sean McGrotty smashed a window in the car and told Davitt: “Save the baby.
In an exclusive interview with Derry Daily this evening, the former Finn Harps star footballer, 28, told how he had a grip of a second child but the child was pulled from him by the force of the car.
Davitt, from Kerrykeel in Co Donegal, revealed how the children’s father Sean McGrotty handed him his four month daughter, looked him in the face and said “Take my child. Help my child.”
The heroic office manager had been out for a walk with girlfriend Stephanie Knox and enjoyed an ice-cream.
As they drove away from the pier Stephanie, a cardiac physiotherapist at Derry’s Altnagelvin Hospital, noticed a car in the water.
The pair immediately ran down to the slip-way where local man Francis Crawford pleaded with Davitt and Stephanie to swim out to the jeep.
Davit said “It all happened so quickly.
“I asked if there were currents and the man said there was. I just stripped down to my underwear and swam out.
“When I got to the car my mind was racing. The man, who was in the driver’s seat, smashed the window.
Davitt Walsh and girlfriend Stephanie Knox speaking about the tragic events at Buncrana Pier.. (North West Newspix)
“I could hear them all screaming inside the car. It’s so hard to describe. I can’t describe how I was feeling. I will never forget those screams.
“The man said “Save the baby” He stayed in the car with his family. He could have saved himself but he decided to stay with his family.
“I had a grip of another big, I think he was about 12 years old but he was pulled away from me somehow.
“When I think about it now, I simply could not have held him up as well and managed to swim away,” he said.
As soon as Mr Walsh, who has played with Shelbourne, Bohemians, Finn Harps and Derry City, pulled the baby form the car, it filled up with water and sank.
He managed to swim away from the car and somehow make the 40 metres back to dry land.
“I held the baby above my head and every now and again the baby was looking down at me. I could just think about getting it to safety,” he said.
When he got back to the slipway, Davitt, who had played a football game that afternoon for his team Fanad Utd, just collapsed.
His girlfriend Stephanie added “I just took the baby and we actually thought it was dead. It wasn’t making a sound. It was wearing little blue leggings and a red top. But then we heard a little cough and we released it was alive.
“I wrapped it in my coat and the emergency services came along and took over.”
Speaking from his kitchen table and surrounded by his family including mum and dad Billy and mum Siobhan, Davitt said he is still racked with guilt that he could not save any other members of the family.
“I just couldn’t get the doors open and neither could they. The electrics must have went.
“I was pulling and I was telling them they had to get out of the car quickly but they couldn’t. I was telling them it was going to go down but they just couldn’t get out.
“I just wanted to get them all out but there was nothing I could do. It all just happened so quickly,” he said.
Davitt was taken to Letterkenny University Hospital where he was treated for cuts and is now on crutches.
He revealed how nurses at the hospital asked him if he would like to see the baby he rescued and he was reunited with the baby for a short time.
“That was very special and it is something I will never forget. I will never forget that but I will also never forget the faces of those people in that car,” he added.
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