An American man who was attacked on Talbot St last week had "saved every penny" to afford his trip to Ireland to see his mother's final resting place.
The US tourist, aged in his 50s, was left with life-changing injuries after he was attacked on Talbot Street in Dublin on Wednesday, July 19th.
Reports say he was leaving a hotel around 10:40pm when he was assaulted by a group who kicked and punched him.
The man, who has been identified by his family as Stephen Termini, was taken to Beaumont Hospital where he is in serious but stable condition.
Irish connection
On Newstalk Breakfast, The Journal journalist, Diarmuid Pepper said the victim's sister said Mr Termini had "saved every penny" to afford his trip to Ireland.
"She was saying that their grandmother was from Mayo and their grandfather was from Dublin so there's a real Irish connection there," he said.
"Their own mother was buried in Ireland around 20 years ago, but Stephen – who was the victim in this attack – was unable to attend the ceremony.
"His sister told us that he longed to visit Ireland to see her final resting place and said that he had been saving every penny to afford this trip.
"It was a real dream of his to make this visit to Ireland."
'View of Ireland'
Mr Pepper said the victim's sister had "never imagined" something would happen to Mr Termini on his visit.
"She had this view of Ireland that ... there's a gun control here and that that's not as big an issue here as it is in America," he said.
"She said that she couldn't afford a trip over, nor could his sons."
A GoFundMe page has been established to help Mr Termini's family to travel to Ireland, with an initial target of $10,000.
"It's past $93,000 US dollars, so, they'll be more than able to make that visit," Mr Pepper said.
"No one likes hospitals but she said to me on the phone that particularly Stephen has a bit of an aversion apparently to hospitals.
"So she said that he will be feeling very, very scared, very lonely and that he would really appreciate a visit from his family."
Main image shows Stephen Termini and his sons Michael and Jesse Rizzuto (Credit: GoFundMe)
