‘Oisín was not a gurrier, he died to save his friend’

THE parents of a teenage boy who died saving his friend from drowning in a river have hailed their son as a hero – but admit that the time since his death has not become any less painful.

Oisín Quigley (13) died in February last year, as he desperately attempted to save a friend from the River Lyreen, in Maynooth, Co Kildare.

His parents Eric and Gordana Quigley were upset after an inquest into their teenage son’s death revealed he and his friends had been drinking gin prior to the tragedy.

They described him as an “affectionate and caring” young kid, who had only tried alcohol for the second time.

“If you were to read it [the inquest] and you didn’t know Oisín, you would think he was a bit of a messer, a bit of a gurrier,” Mr Quigley said.

Both parents – who are separated – explained Oisín went into the river “without hesitation” to save a girl from drowning.

He and two friends – one boy and one girl – had taken school off and ended up drinking by the river.

They had blankets and passed out, unable to cope with the level of alcohol consumed, Mr Quigley explained. When the other boy woke up, the girl who had been sleeping beside the two wasn’t there. He spotted her struggling in the water and tried to help her out, calling for Oisín’s assistance. “Oisín then woke up, saw what was going on, and immediately, without hesitation, jumped straight in to try help her out,” Mr Quigley said. “He [the other boy] said they had got the girl half-way up the bank and she slipped on the wet grass and as she did so, Oisín was bumped into the main river.

“He was washed down a few metres and was hanging on to the bank and the boy was still trying to get the girl out, he said ‘I’ll be over to you in a second’.

“He said he got her into a stable position, but when he turned around, Oisín was gone.

“That would be typical of Oisín’s personality, without hesitation, without any care for his own safety, he just jumped straight in to try to help her,” he added.

Ms Quigley said she wanted people see the type of person her son was. “He wouldn’t even think about it, he saw his friend in danger and he just went in,” she said, feeling the drinking aspect of the inquest took away from his heroic act.