Brave family organise benefit to thank river rescue groups

By MARIE KIERANS, Mid Louth Independent - January 17th 2003

THE heart-broken father of Nail McGahey, the young Drogheda man who drowned in the river Boyne, has appealed to young people to talk to someone it they have a problem.

Wanting no other family to suffer the heartache his family is experiencing, John McGahey urged that young people seek help if they have something bothering them.

As the McGahey family from College Rise, Drogheda struggle to cope with Niall's tragic death they will, says John, his wife Ann and children Niamh, Fergal, Siobhan and Owen, be forever indebted to the Boyne Fisherman's Rescue and Recovery Service and the Drogheda River and Sea Rescue who were on the river day and night for six weeks, many times in freezing conditions, searching for Niall.

And they are convinced too that God played his part in Niall being found on, of all days, Christmas Day. For John revealed how he and Ann, having received Holy Water from Fatima, asked Michael Hodgins to sprinkle the water on the river on Christmas Eve.

'The following day Michael himself was on the river when his boat broke down. When a replacement team came out to get him he told them to search the spot where his boat had stopped and that is where they found our Niall.'

And although the family feels that nothing can repay the search teams for their tireless efforts to find their much loved son and brother, the McGaheys are organising a major benefit night in the Westcourt Hotel, Drogheda next Sunday week, January 26, in aid of the town's two river rescue organisations.

It was the sight of the rescue teams on the river day in day out that kept the McGahey family going during those six long weeks 'We'd go over the bridge and when we'd see them on the river it would give us all a lift.'

'We can never repay them for what they did,' said John, the well-known local traffic warden.

'These were strangers to us who were prepared to go out there and even risk their own lives to find Niall. It's only when you experience a tragedy like this that you full appreciate what these people do,' he said.

Speaking of the long six week wait that the family had to endure before the body of Niall was finally found, remarkably on Christmas Day, John said that they never gave up hope that Niall would be returned to them and that they will always treasure the wonderful support of family, clergy, friends and neighbours, which helped to keep them going.

'Michael Hodgins of the Boyne Fishermen made me a promise that he would bring Mall back to us by Christmas Day and he kept that promise,' said John.

Page 2