A beautiful, energetic personality and a beautiful smile – that’s how a young girl who drowned in Cork was described yesterday, reports RTE.
Emili Roman, who turns eight today with her twin brother Jeremy, got into trouble while swimming at Fountaintown Beach, near Crosshaven, Co Cork.
It is understood that Jeremy was at the beach when Emili got into trouble.
Her father Sloomir was also on the beach when her body was found three hours later.
Emili was a second year student at Church of Ireland Templebride National School in Crosshaven.
It is a small school with 67 students, four teachers and several support staff.
A statement issued today on behalf of the school, its governor and its patron, the Bishop of Cork, said the whole school community and the local parish are “in shock and are utterly devastated” and “heartbroken” for her family, reports RTE.
Principal Doris Bryan, who is also Emili’s teacher, said she was energetic and kind and “greatly loved by everyone and was very popular with all her friends”, reports RTE.
Ms Bryan added: “She was also very artistic and a gifted young girl. On behalf of the school I extend our deepest sympathies to Emili’s parents, Marta and Slawomir, her older sister Inga and her twin brother Jeremy,” reports RTE.
The school has implemented an emergency plan and psychologists from the National Educational Psychological Service are on site to provide support along with local clergy.
Bishop Paul Colton said everyone was shocked and devastated.
“Most of us cannot begin to imagine the suffering that this family must now be going through. On behalf of us all in the Church of Ireland, in general, and in connection with Templebreedy National School and Templebreedy parish, in particular, I too extend our sincere sympathy to everyone in the Roman family,” he said, reports RTE.
“We’ve also seen, particularly in my own home city of Cork, extraordinary tragedy again in the last 24 hours in terms of the drowning of a young eight-year-old girl. It’s been a desperate summer in the context of tragedy involving children, both on our roads and unfortunately with water accidents as well, two of them very close to where I live,” Cork TD Simon Coveney said, reports RTE.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
