Olivia Kelleher
A postmortem examination is due to be carried out today on the body of a baby girl, killed by a dog in Clashmore, Co Waterford on Monday.
The three-month-old, Mia O'Connell was in bed when the dog went upstairs at approximately 2am and attacked her.
Emergency services attended the scene, treating her injuries before taking her by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where she was later pronounced dead.
Following a forensic examination by the Garda Technical Bureau, a file will now be sent to the coroners' court and an inquest will follow. The incident is currently being investigated by gardaí in Dungarvan.
Mia's death has been described as a terrible tragedy by local priest Fr Milo Guiry, who added: "Every support will be offered to them. It is terrible, terrible news."
You hear this kind of thing on television, but you don’t expect it to happen here.
Clashmore resident Pat Flavin said the family were in the thoughts and prayers of everyone in the parish.
“You hear this kind of thing on television, but you don’t expect it to happen here. There are about 1,800 people in this area, it is a small place. Everyone will support them and do what they can for them.”
Mr Flavin said it had been a tragic time for the wider community, with five young teenagers being injured in a crash on the R633 Bog Road some 3km west of Youghal Strand last December.
“We have had a lot of tragedy - now this.”
Shock
Waterford Independent councillor Seamus O’Donnell said he had spoken to locals in Clashmore who had indicated their shock at what had occurred.
“This is a very unusual thing to happen. The family are new in to Clashmore, they are originally from Youghal.
“A woman I spoke to said she was only talking to the grandmother when she was out walking the baby yesterday. They were only talking about how nice the baby was," Mr O'Donnell added.
Waterford Fine Gael Councillor, Pat Nugent, who is a native of Clashmore, said the tragedy had occurred just hours after what had been a fantastic day of festivities in the village.
“This is the last thing you would expect to wake up to on a bank holiday morning. We had such a lovely day in the village of Clashmore yesterday.
"We had a cancer appeal and the GAA club was involved in it and we had vintage cars and a tractor run. People were out walking. It was back to a bit of normality.
"We had a lovely mass yesterday morning - little did we know that a tragedy would occur within 24 hours," Mr Nugent added.
