Big strides for 'darling' young girl injured in Parnell Square attack as she's due back in school

Another positive update has been issued by the mum of the young girl injured in the Parnell Square knife attack in November 2023.

In a message issued on the family's GoFundMe page, she told the public that her daughter has 'come quite far' and is gearing up to return to school after the summer holidays, which will be the first time she's returned to the school in almost two years.

The message, published on July 30, read: 'We have been sailing through the summer holidays, but very little resting has happened. Our darling girl has had back-to-back physio, occupational, and speech and language therapies.'

Flowers and tributes placed at the entrance to Gaelscoil Cholaiste Mhuire on Parnell Square East. Pic: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

'After being at home full-time since the end of November, we are day patients in rehabilitation. She has come quite far, and prospects are positive,' she continued. 'She is taking this bootcamp like a champ! Then it is back to school in September.'

The young girl's mum has been keeping the public up to date with her recovery, but on June 26, she deviated slightly from her typical update format to relay an emotional and thought-provoking message.

It read: 'Picture this: One day, at the end of your work day, you are standing outside your workplace, and suddenly, you see a commotion. You run because your instincts tell you to do so, only you cannot run because something is stopping you from doing it.

'And then you slip into a nightmare, one that you try to escape, try to climb a tree or a wall to get out,' it continued. 'And then you wake up. However, you cannot move, for as much as you try, you simply cannot move. Your chest hurts, your eyes are sore, your arms and legs are heavy.

'You are somewhere you have never been, you don't recognise anything. There are people around you, all wearing uniforms. Lots of lights, beeping, wires, tubes, windows. You see a familiar face, hear a familiar voice telling you that you are safe. "Safe from what? Can someone please tell me what is happening?"

'No one can hear you. There is a tube down your throat. And your voice doesn't come out. The words in your head are clear, but they don't register.'

'Days, weeks, months, go by. It is all very alien still. You are not able to speak, you are unable to walk. You can lift one arm, very slowly. You cannot eat because you haven't 'learnt' how to swallow. Instead, you have a tube going into your stomach,' it continued.

'And the days go by. People guess what you want because you still cannot speak. They change your nappy, wipe your mouth, bathe you, all the things you managed to do yourself. You are completely dependent. On top of that, you are given medication four times a day.

'Drugs which make you groggy, even if they are meant to help. You look at yourself in the mirror, but it is a completely different person from whom you remember. You have scars across your chest, on your neck, on your arm from all the different life-saving procedures. It is a lot. You just want to understand.'

It continued: 'This seems like a scene from a movie, but it isn't. This happened to our little girl. Only it wasn't a workplace, it was a school. And nothing is certain... She gets by because she is a happy child, surrounded by love.

'In spite of it all, we have no answers, even if we know who is responsible. And we know we want justice so that other parents don't have to go through what we are.'

Flowers and tributes placed at the entrance to Gaelscoil Cholaiste Mhuire on Parnell Square East. Pic: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

The GoFundMe page, which was established in November 2023 with a target of €500, has raised a total of €136,600 thus far.

Two other children, aged five and six, along with their carer Leanne Flynn, were injured during the same attack which took place outside a school on Parnell Square, Dublin on November 23, 2023.