The mother of tragic Erin and Shannon Gallagher has said the death of English girl Hannah Smith has forced her to relive the deaths of her two girls.
Lorraine Gallagher – all her sadness has been brought back.
Hannah Smith took her own life last Friday after being bullied online on the website Ask.fm.
This is the same website on which Ballybofey schoolgirl Erin Gallagher was bullied on before her death last November.
Her sister Shannon took her own life just a little more than a month later because she said she could not live without her younger sister.
Now the girls’ mum has revealed how she has been put through torment again after learning that yet another teenager has died s a result of online bullying.
Lorraine Gallagher said Hannah Smith’s death is almost a mirror-image of her daughter Erin’s death.
Ms Gallagher revealed how she first learned of Hannah’s death when she noticed picture’s of her late daughters Shannon and Erin on her television screen yesterday (TUES) morning.
“I was sure exactly what was going on and I just saw pictures of Erin and Shannon on the television screen.
“I then realised that another young girl had taken her own life and it was as a direct result of being bullied through Ask.fm. I couldn’t breath for a while as I tried to take it all in.
“Hannah’s death was almost a copycat of what happened to my Erin. She was bullied online and nobody listened. She asked the bullies to stop but they wouldn’t.
“They just kept hurting her and then hiding behind this secret curtain on Ask.fm,” she said.
Lorraine said she was again begging the Irish Government and Governments around the world to ban the Ask.fm site which has 50 million users.
“How many deaths will it take before the authorities realise that Ask.fm is harming our teenagers?
“I am asking the Irish Government to take a stand on this and lead the way and ban Ask.fm in Ireland. Sure they have the power to do that.
“If people were telling children where to get drugs or alcohol, we would be quick enough to close it down.
“But it doesn’t seem to matter that children are allowed to be bullied online by anonymous people. It has to stop,” she said.
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