Emotional Temple St Hospital worker who stopped angry mob from kicking Parnell Square attacker to death after he stabbed three young children breaks her silence and lays bare her most HAUNTING regret...

Published: 22:35, 4 July 2026 | Updated: 22:35, 4 July 2026 The woman who stopped an angry mob from kicking the Parnell Square knife attacker to death has revealed she is haunted by thoughts that she could have saved the little girl from ‘catastrophic injuries’ if she had arrived a little sooner. After Riad Bouchaker was convicted at the Central Criminal Court this week for the attempted murder of three five- and six-year-old children, Siobhán Kearney told the Irish Mail on Sunday of the impact that the horrific incident has had on her – revealing that she had broken down in tears while working in Dublin’s Temple Street Children’s hospital, because she knew the most seriously injured victim was in the hospital. Ms Kearney, who stood guard with another woman over the Algerian and Irish national as he lay unconscious on the ground after being disarmed of the 36cm carving knife he was carrying, explained: ‘I always wonder if I got there a few seconds earlier could I have saved that girl from getting those catastrophic injuries. ‘I made it over the road… if I had paid attention before I heard the scream, the poor child, that’s all I can think of, and her mother.’ Months later Ms Kearney, a hospital chef, found herself working in Temple Street hospital where the most seriously injured child was recovering. It was then the tears began to fall. ‘When I went to work in Temple Street months later I knew that girl was there. I thought “oh God”, I took a deep breath and said to myself “try not to show your emotions because this is your workplace”. Riad Bouchaker is treated on the ground after brutally stabbing three young children outside their Parnell Square playschool ‘But I remember going into the toilet and having a little cry and saying “get yourself together here get yourself together”. ‘That child went to school that morning a perfectly happy five-year-old and by lunchtime her life was never going to be the same.  'Her mother’s life is never going to be the same and her father’s life is never going to be the same.’ On Wednesday after deliberating for four hours and 40 minutes a jury of three women and nine men found Bouchaker guilty of attempting to murder two girls and one boy as they walked with their child minder Leanne Flynn along Parnell Square November 23, 2023. He was also found guilty of stabbing Ms Flynn and of assault causing harm to two other youngsters and a French teenager who intervened to grab the knife. Shortly before he made his way to Parnell Square, the Algerian born Irish national was overheard saying ‘s*** Irish, s*** f****** Irish’ because his application for a disability allowance had been rejected by officials at the Department of Social Protection. One five-year-old girl sustained such catastrophic injuries she can only communicate by blinking. She was stabbed in the heart and will require round the clock 24-hour care for life. Siobhan Kearney, a witness to the stabbing spree commited by Riad Bouchaker, who was found guilty on Wednesday of attempted murder of three children at Parnell Square, Dublin Siobhán Kearney's record of the attack A second five-year-old girl needed surgery to repair a knife slice to her scalp while the boy sustained a neck injury. Meanwhile, their child minder Leanne Flynn, whose bravery saved the children from their frenzied attacker, sustained serious injuries. She underwent emergency surgery, lost her spleen and has been unable to return to work. Siobhán Kearney was among those who gave evidence at Bouchaker’s trial and even though it is nearing three years since that fateful November day, she can still recall in vivid detail what unfolded. Her 18-year-old brother Liamo was among the 48 young people killed in the fire at the Stardust nightclub on St Valentine’s night in 1981. He was only two years older than her and on the November afternoon Bouchaker targeted the youngsters as they walked from school, Ms Kearney was taking a-last-chance-cigarette break before the inquest into her brother’s death and that of 47 other young people, resumed. The landmark public hearing – which would ultimately deliver a verdict of unlawful death – was held at the Pillar Room which is close to the Rotunda maternity hospital on Dublin’s Parnell Square. The inquest started hearing evidence in April 2023 and she was among the many relatives who attended the inquests each day. So by the following November, the children making their daily walk from school to their after school childminding service had become a familiar sight to her. And she often remarked to herself how happy they looked. But on the afternoon of November 23, 2023, instead of smiling to herself as the youngsters passed by, the mother of three became distracted by a piercing scream. A sketch of Riad Bouchaker in the Central Criminal Court  She recalls: ‘I was standing there and then I just heard this unmerciful scream and the scream was like somebody was in trouble. ‘I just looked across the road and the first thing that caught me was the knife and I saw it in your man’s right hand and I took across the road screaming “he’s stabbing the kids, he’ stabbing the kids’’. ‘I think I was screaming at myself to say that this was actually happening because it was kind of surreal to see somebody like that and I was screaming ‘get the kids away, get the kids away.’ The next few minutes were chaotic. Bouchaker was knocked to the ground while being disarmed by another bystander and Ms Kearney kicked his knife to a nearby kerb. As the knife attacker lay unconscious, some furious people began to attack him. It was at this stage Ms Kearney decided to intervene, shouting ‘we’re not savages’. She stood over Bouchaker holding hands with another woman and between them they stopped anyone from delivering any further blows. She recalls: ‘I stood me ground, look I was reared with five boys… when your man was out cold [on the ground] there was blood coming from his mouth. They were beating him and I was dragging them. I felt the vibration at my feet of him hitting the ground and that’s when people began to get really irate. ‘You could see he had big eyes, he had bulging eyes. He was lying on the ground and the girl [with the catastrophic injuries] was lying about two or three feet away. I can’t erase it from my mind. ‘I knew there and then their lives were all going to change like our lives changed overnight. I knew from the Stardust that in the blink of an eye your life can change. Candles and tributes left following a vigil held outside Gaelscoil Cholaiste Mhuire school on Parnell Square, following an attack on Parnell Square East where five people were injured ‘Our family’s life changed. It was like someone just threw a bomb into our home that night and we’re still picking up the pieces. ‘I got a few boots. Your man was unconscious, he couldn’t get up and harm anyone. What benefit would it be to see someone kicked to death. ‘I couldn’t have it on my conscience. I have sought truth and justice all my life and I can’t let something like that happen. ‘If he had died of course there would have been an investigation about how he died and everything would have been taken off him, the focus would have been on him and not on the children and their parents. It would have been just more difficult for the parents.’ It was only when armed gardaí arrived on the scene that the reality of what she had witnessed finally struck her. On seeing their guns she trembled and shook fearing she had been in the midst of a terrorist attack. Soon afterwards the qualified chef made her way home. She pulled out her green recipe book and made a written record of what she witnessed. The scene of the horror stabbing on Parnell Square in Dublin She explained: ‘I knew the police would be down to interview me and I didn’t want to be influenced by social media or by “she said this and I saw that”… I can only point to doing that because of being at an inquest for a year and if you have been 43 years fighting... She is also critical of the subsequent Dublin riots, and the instigators of the lawlessness. Ms Kearney believes the city should have come to a standstill that grim November day in 2023 – but with peaceful vigils instead of with rioters looting shops and burning vehicles. ‘What did the rioters do? They did nothing but burn our city. ‘The firemen had enough to be doing that day... instead of them being violent there should have been vigils to pray for Leanne Flynn, one of the bravest women in Ireland and for the children and their mothers. ‘There should have been vigils held that night to pray for them instead of this anarchy of violence that was unnecessary. ‘It achieved absolutely nothing. There was no sense to it. What did they [rioters] achieve, only getting angry people arrested?’ Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.