Life support is to be removed from a teenage boy grievously injured during a school playground incident, a priest has said.
Oisín McGrath is critically ill in hospital in Belfast and is very unlikely to recover, Fr Seamus Quinn said.
The 13-year-old is a pupil at St Michael’s College in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, and was hurt while playing football during his lunch break on Monday afternoon.
A 17-year-old boy was arrested and later bailed pending further police inquiries into what happened.
Fr Quinn has been at the victim’s bedside. He said: “People were shocked when they heard that there were no signs of life and the support would be gradually removed.”
Oisín, a keen Gaelic footballer from the village of Belcoo in Fermanagh on, has been treated in the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) in Belfast. St Michael’s is a Catholic boys’ grammar school with 700 pupils.
Fr Quinn said: “He is a very well-grounded and well-rounded young teenage fella. He was happy and helpful, genuinely helpful, intelligent young fella.
“They are a well-loved and well-respected family, they are solid, salt of the earth people, faith-based people, Christian people.”
He said the community in Belcoo had been united in prayer for Oisín, with 500 people attending Catholic Mass on Wednesday night at St Patrick’s Church in Holywell — a small village outside Belcoo.
“There is a silence in the village, there was a silence after Mass last night, naturally people were just dumbfounded and in shock.
“For anybody who has children it is their worst nightmare.”
The teenager played GAA football in Belcoo. His mother Sharon is secretary in the local club.
The club asked its members to keep Oisín and his family in their prayers.
The school said: “A group of students were playing at lunchtime when one student became unwell and we sought medical assistance.”
PA