Mum’s memorial to special tot Clarissa PLAQUE AT SPOT WHERE DAD DROWNED DAUGHTER
AMANDA Slevin, Helen
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Kennedy, Roisin Ellison, Marina Warren and Tasmin Warren were in peak form as they took part in the Cystic Fibrosis Ireland 10th Annual
A MEMORIAL plaque to a threeyear-old girl who was drowned by her father nine years ago has been erected at the spot she loved and where she subsequently lost her life.
Clarissa McCarthy was killed by her father Martin McCarthy (50) who also took his own life on March 5, 2013, at Audley Cove close to their home outside Ballydehob, Co Cork.
The toddler was buried with her father in Schull cemetery following their deaths but last June following a lengthy campaign her mother Rebecca Saunders had her daughter’s remains exhumed, cremated and returned to the US.
The plaque reads: “Clarissa Jean McCarthy. Never truly gone. Always in our heart. May 22nd, 2009 - March 5th, 2013.”
On the official Twitter page, Clarissa’s Cause, Ms Saunders said: “Clarissa’s plaque was put up in Audley Cove
Head to Head walk yesterday.
The Swords girls were just ★
some of the scores to join the walk from Howth to Bray which raises vital funds for the charity. today. It’s wonderful to be able to have a small memento to her in the place she loved best despite the negative memory about Audley Cove that runs deep.
“I hope it will always be a place people can celebrate the special girl she was”.
Mistake
Ms Saunders, now lives in Houston, Texas, called it an “awful mistake” to have her daughter buried with her late husband.
After appearing on RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Live, she raised €42,000 from public donations, used for legal counsel, exhumation and transfer costs to the US. She donated funds not used to Edel House, which supports victims of domestic violence, and Cork University Maternity Hospital Neonatal
Unit.