The mother of a 21-year-old man who died after he was assaulted on a night out in New York in 2018 has said she could not believe it when she heard how her son had died.
Danny McGee, from Drumlish in Co Longford, was the victim of a "one punch attack" outside a pub by a 26-year-old Dublin man.
Steven O'Brien, with an address at 42nd Street, Queens, New York, was jailed yesterday for six months.
Colleen McGee said her response to the garda who broke the news about her son's death was: "You mean someone hit him?"
She said her son had never been involved in fights and the family has been devastated by his death.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mrs McGee said her son "was a wonderful, wonderful boy who brought us all a lot of fun and laughter" and she and her other two children had been looking forward to spending Christmas with him in New York.
She said Danny had gone to New York in 2017 because he wanted to try it out and he loved the city, where he had been working as a doorman.
The last time she saw him was in August 2018.
She said that a lot of people had shared stories with her about Danny, and after he died she received hundreds of cards from people that he had known.
Mrs McGee said the outpouring shocked her but it "showed what kind of a kid he was", that "people just took to him - young, old, it didn't matter."
O'Brien pleaded not guilty and Mrs McGee said this was an added burden that the family did not need and dragged the process out unnecessarily.
To hear a plea of not guilty at every court date was, she said, very difficult to hear when her son had died and "somebody is guilty of something."
