A child who was among several people stabbed in an incident on Dublin’s Parnell Square late last year is still non-verbal, her parents have said.
The girl, aged five at the time of the November 23rd attack, was critically injured and spent 281 days in Temple Street Children’s Hospital before being released last month.
She has just turned six, parents said in a “bittersweet” update as she celebrated her birthday last week.
The multiple stabbing outside Coláiste Mhuire on Parnell Square left two other young children and a carer injured.
In the update, shared to the girl’s GoFundMe by her parents, they announced that she had turned six last week, but is still non-verbal in her recovery.
“This week holds a bittersweet feeling. Our sweet girl turns 6,” they said.
“She had just turned 5 when all this started. She had been in junior infants for a couple of months. She had met her cousins in my hometown for the first time”.
“She had plans for her 5: she wanted to master riding a bike in order to get roller skates by the time she turned 6. We had to put that plan on hold,” her parents wrote.
“This weekend I got our face paint kit out and asked her what she wanted to be. To be honest, I am not good at it, but it was simply a moment of fun. After much deliberation, her eyes lingered on the butterfly one. She is still non-verbal”.
Her parents compared her to the caterpillar, saying: “Perhaps our angel was still a caterpillar in November of 2023. Now she is in her chrysalis, getting stronger, changing, adapting, and will come out a butterfly in the end”.
Thanking the public for their generosity in donations, which have now reached over €110,000, her parents said the money has “come a long way” as over recent months they have had to “move to a bigger place with a wheelchair accessible layout, furnish the house thinking about space and functionality, get an adapted car”.
The adapted car has enabled the family to take their daughter home from hospital at the weekends, they said.
“We are hoping to be home full time before Christmas,” the GoFundMe update said.
Riad Bouchaker (50) is currently before the courts and is charged with three counts of attempted murder, one of producing and possession of a kitchen knife, three accounts of assault causing harm and one of assault causing serious harm.
The incident last November sparked a far-right gathering in the city in the hours after the attack, followed by riots, arson attacks, clashes with gardaí and looting of shops.
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