Davitt meets the baby just days after he saved her life. Pic Joe Boland/NorthWest NewsPix
BUNCRANA hero Davitt Walsh has vowed to teach baby Rioghnach-Ann how to swim in few years time.
Tragic dad Sean McGrotty, 46, sons Mark, 12, and Evan, eight, mother-in-law Ruth Daniels, 59, and her daughter Jodie-Lee, 14, died in the tragedy.
They were killed after their Audi Q7 car skidded off the slippery Buncrana Pier in March this year, plunging the North West of Ireland in mourning.
But brave Davitt, 29, swam out and rescued nine-month-old Rioghnach-Ann from the arms of her tragic dad Sean.
And speaking after winning an award at the Irish Mirror”s Pride of Ireland Awards, Davitt said: “Rioghnach-Ann is going to be there for ever.
“She’s going to be a part of my life and I want her to be a part of my life. That’s what I hope.
“One thing I definitely want to do is to take her swimming — make sure she knows how to swim. I’ll wait until she’s three, four or five but that will fly in.”
Davitt said he still doesn’t feel like a hero.
He added: “There are some brilliant people out there. It was a bit of a shock when I learned I was getting an award. I never thought I’d win an award like this or that this would ever happen to me.
“In all honesty I don’t feel like a hero at all. I only wished at the time I could have done more.”
And Davitt said he wants to be friends with the tot’s mother Louise — who was out of the country when the accident happened.
Davitt withi his award at the Irish Mirror Pride of Britain Awards
He said: “I want to be a part of Louise’s life as well but at the moment emotions are running high on both sides and she’s trying to get over what happened, and I’m the same.”
Heroic Davitt previously told how he didn’t think twice about hopping in the water to help the stricken family after his girlfriend Steph spotted the family’s Audi.
He said: “It was a really beautiful evening, so we decided to go down to the beach, get a few photos, just like a normal Sunday for us.”
“We’d been talking for a few minutes, and then decided to go home.
“That’s when Steph just happened to look back — I don’t know why she looked back, but she did, and said: ‘There’s a car in the middle of the water!’”
“I’d already made the decision that I was going in while I was in our car — I was taking my clothes off, and I looked at the family and they were calling for the Coastguards, calling for help.
“We thought that we were just going to swim out to the car and bring the family in.”
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