‘Absolute miracle’: Limerick teen who had last rites said over him twice starts his Junior Cert year

THOUSANDS of Limerick students have gone back to school but it is an “absolute miracle” that one young man has returned to the classroom after doctors told his parents he “wouldn’t make the night”.

Antoinette and Liam Lawless were told three times that youngest son Dáithí wouldn’t survive after a “devastating road accident” near his home in Cush, Martinstown, while cycling his bike in April, 2020. Tragically, Liam passed away from cancer in January.

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Dáithí was on life support for two-and-a-half weeks, in a coma for three months, and underwent seven surgeries including removing a clot on his brain. Consultants even kept some of his hair for his parents when they shaved his head as they feared the worst.

Priests said the last rites over Dáithí twice but thanks to his mum, late father, brothers Liam and Anthony, family, cousins, medical professionals, and support of the whole community, the now 15-year-old got his school bag ready for the new term like every youngster in Limerick this week..

“It is an absolute miracle,” said mum Antoinette (pictured below with Dáithí).

Dáithí tells the Leader he enjoys going to school in Coláiste Iósaef in Kilmallock.

Dáithí is a typical teenager in that he quickly got bored of the photographer taking pictures of him. 

He smiles when this reporter admires his earring and he points to his nose with a cheeky grin. 

“You’re not getting a nose ring!” exclaims Antoinette as Dáithí giggles in the kitchen.

He loves GAA, video games, baking, singing, has attended a teenage disco in Bulgaden Castle, plays wheelchair hurling, sang the 2 Johnnies’ When I Play for the County in a talent show and has an eye for the ladies! GAA clubs Staker Wallace, Coshlea Gaels and the Munster Wheelchair Hurling Camogie Club are a big part of his life. 

Many prayers have been said for Dáithí and he has a deep faith.

Dáithí has got every support possible but his journey from being on his death bed to being able to walk and speak again, and sit his Junior Cert next June is thanks to his own indomitable spirit.

As he heads off to the sitting room to do his homework (or more likely play video games), Antoinette says his intelligence and aptitude for computers played a crucial role in his recovery.

She recalls being in Temple Street where consultants were arguing over the best course to follow, and asking a nurse if Dáithí was dying.

“She said, ‘He is’. I sat down beside him and said, ‘Go to your sister Stephanie and it’s absolutely fine’.

“I'm saying all this not believing one word of it but I felt if he's got to go, he better go as nicely as possible. Shortly after that, something changed on the machines and he started to breathe.

“The nurse said to me, ‘How in God's name did you do that?’ I said, ‘I couldn't let him die thinking everything was wrong’.”

Local priest Father Chris O'Donnell travelled up to Dublin during the height of a Covid lockdown to pray over Dáithí.

After three months in hospital, concerns over his brain’s activity persisted as he lay in the bed with no movement.

“One day he moved his arm and that changed everything. Doctors were called into the room.  He started to wake up but only for a minute. Every day it got a little longer and they did a test on him. They gave him an iPad, asked him if he could play a game and he could. They couldn’t believe it,” said Antoinette.

Dáithí was discharged from Temple Street in October after seven months, down to University Hospital Limerick where he spent a further two months. In January 2021, Dáithí commenced in National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire.

His progress continued at home with physiotherapy and speech, occupational, music and horse therapy. This is all thanks to a major fundraising drive, called Rise4Dáithí, by a  committee chaired by local man Jack O’Shea.

Now, Dáithí is looking forward to doing his Junior Cert in 2026 with  many of the same subjects as his contemporaries. “The staff, led by principal Noel Kelly, in Coláiste Iósaef are phenomenal, absolutely incredible. It is the most inclusive school imaginable,” said Antoinette.

As Dáithí continues to learn during his educational journey, this brave young man teaches us all about the power of human resolve.