I’M GUILTY I LIVED AS MY SIX PALS DIED IN BERKELEY
‘I remember the laughter... and then a rumble’
I NJURED Berkeley tragedy survivor Niall Murray has told how he is racked with guilt after surviving, while six other bright students died in the appalling accident.
The 21-year- old appeared in a wheelchair with his arms and leg wrapped in plaster as he spoke f or the f i rst time about the balcony collapse that shocked America’s J1 community.
‘I feel quite guilty and awful to be alive today. I’m not sure why I made
it,’ he said, while choked with emotion. Joined by fellow survivor Hannah Waters, also in a wheelchair, and her mother Una, Niall said: ‘I remember the night, the only thing I don’t remember is how I hit the ground.’
And placing his hands on the left side of his face, he added: ‘I figured I must have done something like that to protect my head.’
The recovering student was overcome with emotion as he spoke of his plans to come home soon, when he will meet the families of those who died.
Niall was supported by his mother and brother as he spoke at a news conference at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Centre in San José, where he has been receiving treatment for a broken wrist, heel and elbow. He also almost lost one of his index fingers but is expected to make a full recovery.
The Dubliner, wearing a bright Bayern Munich jersey, said he had been at the party for about half an hour and remembered
‘It’s like a bubble. It will be hard going home’
everyone joking and laughing. He was on the balcony when he heard a ‘big rumble’ as the structure gave way. He saw two of the other victims as he was falling.
After that, he remembers being put on a gurney by paramedics and waking up in an accident and emergency room.
Niall said he had learned about the death of his friends through Facebook and remembers ringing his family and sobbing. He said he wished he had learned about their deaths in a different way.
He held back the tears as he remembered his friends. ‘It’s kind of like a bubble over here. It will be hard going home, I imagine.’ But he thanked the nurses, doctors and diplomatic officials for the help they gave him and others.
Medical staff said that Niall and his family would be returning to Ireland next week. And in a lighter moment, he told how he is looking forward to being with his family and friends ‘and to a big Irish breakfast’.
Six other Irish students, including Ms Waters, Aoife Beary, Clodagh Cogley, Conor Flynn, Jack Halpin and Seán Fahey, were injured in the collapse.
Earlier this week, Ms Beary returned home with her family to continue her recovery in Dublin. The 21-year- old flew home with her parents, Mike and Angela, and her siblings, after being discharged from a hospital in Santa Clara, south of San Francisco, where she had been since July.
The student from Blackrock is the fifth survivor of the tragedy to come home. Her return comes almost three months after the accident that killed five Dublin students on J1 visas in California, and an Irish-American woman.
They had been celebrating Ms Beary’s 21st birthday when the fourth-floor balcony at t he Library Gardens apartment block on Kittredge Street, Berkeley, collapsed on June 16.
Eoghan Culligan, Niccolai Schuster, Lorcán Miller, Eimear Walsh, Olivia Burke and Ms Burke’s cousin Ashley Donohoe died when the balcony suddenly collapsed under them.
Survivor Clodagh Cogley arrived back home to Dublin last month, where she continues her rehabilitation.
A post on her Facebook page at the time read: ‘So many people have offered us support and encouragement in so many ways that we will never be able to thank everyone individually but in the last two months we have certainly seen the very best of the human spirit on both sides of the ocean.’
A pastoral centre run by a Donegal priest has collected more than $500,000 to help families of the students who died and others directly affected by the tragedy. Fr Brendan McBride said the funds will help pay for the treatment of the survivors.
And up to €50,000 was raised as part of a major fundraising drive.
A criminal investigation into the collapse has been opened but lawyers say it is difficult to win convictions against property owners, contractors and others involving allegations of construction failures in the US.
The last known criminal prosecution of a balcony collapse i n the state of California occurred in San Francisco almost 20 years ago.