Earlier this morning, in the small park area behind Tyrrelstown, a small boy of the age of five drowned.

The pond that I so adore has claimed a life of a little boy, and it would seem that there are talks of increasing security due to the frequency of these events; another drowning happened recently at another manmade pond in the north western area of Dublin.

I heard of this tragedy as I had finished my morn… noon jog, at around 13:30; I met a journalist who asked if I had heard of a drowning earlier in the morning. I expressed my surprise to this event, and after having said that I had no idea, he moved on to someone else. So I went on to continue my post-run walk until I reached the pond itself.

At the pond, new “no swimming” signs had been posted and I noticed a photographer by the pond, taking pictures of a bunch of people leaving flowers by the pond. I approached the man and asked if he actually knew anything about the case, but he had only received the headline and the location. As I left, I noticed a camera crew arriving to the pond as well.

News outlets arriving to the scene

I found the details on the incident later on from the following article: http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/irish-news/boy-five-drowns-in-pond-30394617.html

I slept late this morning. I initially woke up at 6.30 AM, but just decided to go back to sleep. The next time I woke up was around 10:00. IF I had gone for a jog like I had planned to (instead of eating breakfast and waiting on it), I could’ve potentially ended up finding the child; dead or alive. I could have done something, IF I had gone for the jog at that time…

“If” is one of those words that I like to coin with all the time. I don’t honestly know if things would have gone any other way even if I had gotten there before anyone else. But it is all pointless in the end; I didn’t go and that will not change. There is no point wallowing in self pity and putting the blame on yourself for an event that you had nothing to do with.

It is a tragedy for sure, but while I’m not blaming myself for my failure to go for a jog at a certain time of the day, I just can’t shake the pang of guilt from my mind.