Ireland's Eye: What's going on in the old sod

Dolphin lover’s sad death

The funeral of a Dublin mother who died while on holidays after fulfilling a lifelong dream took place on Monday.

Mother of two Jane O'Connor, 49, suffered a massive heart attack just hours after swimming with dolphins in a Florida water park.

The service took place in the Church of St. Paul of the Cross in Mount Argus, the same church where she got married to her husband Niall.
It was Niall who found the body of his wife of 23 years on Friday, August 13 in the holiday home where they were staying.

Along with their two teenage sons, Luke and Aaron, they had been on a two-week holiday to celebrate Jane's 50th birthday. She would have been 50 this week.

Just hours before her death, the family had spent the day in the Discovery Cove theme park. There, Jane was finally able to fulfill her dream of swimming with dolphins.

O'Connor said his wife, who was a special needs assistant, had loved dolphins and had always wanted to swim with them.

Instead of holding a party for her 50th birthday, the family decided to go to Orlando.

Jane died after returning to their rented holiday home from a meal out. She was found collapsed in a bathroom just before midnight. Efforts by emergency services to revive her failed and she was pronounced dead in hospital a short time later.

O'Connor described Jane as his "life," adding the family has lost someone "very, very special."

Her death notice states she died suddenly "on her dream trip to swim with the dolphins in Florida."
- Evening Herald
 
Heartless dog thief

A Northside Dublin girl has been left devastated after her beloved dog, which she bought with her Communion money, was stolen from her garden in Swords.

Alanah Gargan’s precious whippet pup, which she bought from the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) 18 months ago, was taken from the family’s garden in broad daylight on Sunday, August 1.

The 10-year-old girl is inconsolable. She isn’t sleeping and looks out the window from morning till night hoping that her dog will return.

The whippet, named Lucy, is described as being one of the most gentle of dogs and terrified of nearly everything. It is believed she may have been stolen for breeding purposes.

However, Alanah’s mother Naomi said that the pet is invaluable to her family but completely worthless to anyone else as she is neutered.
“We are just devastated,” she said.  “I can’t understand how anybody would be so cruel as to take a child’s dog.”

Lucy was badly physically abused and neglected before she was rescued by the DSPCA.

“She’s like another member of the family,” Naomi stated.   “Lucy has been my daughter’s best friend for the last 18 months.”

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Nster.com