A Dublin mother has said her eight-year legal battle with Scouting Ireland over her daughter's tragic death "just prolonged the horror".

In December 2015, Anne Winterlich’s 14-year-old daughter Aoife set out on a Scouts trip to Hook Head in Waterford.

At around 3.30pm in the afternoon, Ms Winterlich’s phone buzzed.

“It was Aoife’s friend Philip’s mother Marie and Marie said, ‘Have you heard anything from the scouts?’” Ms Winterlich told Newstalk Breakfast.

“I assumed she was going to say, ‘They’re just a bit late’ - she was picking them up - but she said, ‘No, I think it might be a better idea for you to ring Waterford Hospital, there’s been an accident and Aoife is there.’ 

“So, I rang Waterford Hospital and after having a conversation with the doctor, he said, ‘It’s looking pretty bad… It’s very serious.’” 

'Another wave came in'

At that point, the details of what had happened were hazy but later on a witness got in touch and told the family what he had seen.

“[The teenagers] were walking along the plateau of rocks along Hook Head and then he saw a wave come in and knocked Aoife and Philip off their feet,” Ms Winterlich said. 

“Both of them got up but Aoife, he said, looked disorientated. 

“Two of the other children came down to see if they were okay or to help and another wave came in at the children and took the four of them into the water.” 

'Stone cold'

Distraught at the news, the family left immediately for Waterford Hospital.

Upon arrival, they were ushered in to see Aoife and they found their daughter was “stone cold” to touch. 

“The doctor had said that they were very concerned that if she survived that there’d be… severe brain damage,” Ms Winterlich. 

Legal proceedings

Four days later Aoife passed away but Scouting Ireland only settled the case in relation to her death last week. 

Ms Winterlich said all she wanted was an apology from “from the beginning” and the lack of it made Aoife’s death even more difficult to cope with. 

“It blocks you from healing and from grief,” she said. 

“We couldn’t grieve properly because… we had to go through the whole case, going through all of the details all of the time. 

“It just prolonged the horror, it kept us in that day all of the time.” 

Not long afterwards, Aoife’s father passed away; he had been ill for some time with cancer but Ms Winterlich feels the death of his daughter was just “too much” for him to deal with. 

Now after so many tragedies, she hopes her family can start to “move on maybe”.  

“Aoife will always be the loss that we have to live with,” she said.

“But at least we have justice for Aoife and we have the truth.” 

In a statement, Scouting Ireland said Aoife's death "deeply saddened and shocked the entire scouting community". 

"We note the comments made by His Honour Judge Callan and deeply regret the hurt caused to Aoife’s family by the delay in settling this matter," the statement continued.

"We sincerely apologise to them.

‍“Our policies for outings and overnight camps are under constant review to ensure the safety of young people in our care and that of our volunteers."

Scouting Ireland also said their safety procedures remain "under constant review".

Main image: A picture of Aoife Winterlich. Picture by: The Winterlich family.