The word “hero” gets thrown around quite easily these days, but it truly is deservant of mother-of-13 Maria Foley who bravely dived into the river Lee when she realised 3-yr-old Caleb Watters had fallen in.
Caleb was being minded by his au pair, Anna, when he slipped and fell 20 feet into the water.
The au pair started screaming for someone to take the buggy she had been pushing, so that she could jump in after the boy. Within seconds however, a passerby, Maria Foley, a mother-of-13 from Cobh, had dived into the river to rescue the child.
“She really is a true hero. She’s our guardian angel,”, Caleb’s mother Adriana Watters said.
“I’m just absolutely amazed by this act of selflessness, that she just saw a child in distress and just jumped in without thinking about herself. It’s amazing to see someone do that. It’s not everyone who would. She’s truly special”.
There have since been national calls for Maria Foley to be awarded a medal for her outstanding bravery on Friday – highly deserved.