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Berkeley survivors face tough road to recovery

Niall Murray was one of four young Irish men injured
Niall Murray was one of four young Irish men injured Niall Murray was one of four young Irish men injured

The families of four young Irish students critically injured in the Berkeley balcony tragedy have revealed the road to recovery will be "far from straight".

Five Dublin J-1 students and a young Irish-American woman were killed when a balcony collapsed at the Library Gardens apartment complex in California during a 21st birthday party last month.

Of the seven people injured, three young men have been released from hospital, while three women and one man remain in the care of staff at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Centre for "life-changing injuries".

Relatives of Amanda Beary, Hannah Waters, Aoife Cogley and Niall Murray have said they face a "long treatment and recovery" period.

"Every new week brings more complexity and that the road to recovery is far from straight, even in the very best of clinical environments," they said in a statement.

The parents said they hope their children will be able to return to Ireland "in the coming weeks and months when they are individually ready and sufficiently strong enough" and thanked all the medical centres where the seven survivors were initially treated for their "first class medical care and natural human kindness".

And they paid special tribute to Dr James Crew and his team of experts at the Santa Clara facility.

Relatives asked that the survivors be given time and space when they return home, urging friends and well-wishers to "contain themselves a little longer until they are really ready, physically and emotionally".

"We hope you will understand and accept our need as parents and siblings to be overprotective of our brothers, sisters and our kids for some time to come. They have been through so much," they said.

Meanwhile, the parents expressed their support for the families of those who died, including Eimear Walsh, Ashley Donohue, Olivia Burke, Niccolai Schuster, Lorcán Miller and Eoghan Culligan.

They said the friends who were present when up to 80 young people had gathered to celebrate Aoife Beary's birthday "could never have imagined such a tragic end to their J1 experience".

"They too are victims, and they have also had to deal with the trauma of this terrible loss."