Who is Eileen Loughlin? Influencer opens up about daughter Annabel's death 7 years later

Eileen Loughlin is an Irish influencer, content creator, and mother of four. She is known for sharing family-focused content on social media, offering candid insights into motherhood and her experiences with grief. She recently appeared on Ireland AM discussing her heartbreaking loss of her daughter, Annabel, who passed away in 2018.

In the interview on October 14, Loughlin remembered the time when her 3-year-old daughter died because of a tragic accident that occurred at home.

“I heard a loud bang in our sitting room,” she said, remembering the moment that changed her family’s life forever. “She was there that morning, and she was gone that evening.”

Seven years after Annabel’s death, Eileen Loughlin continues to keep her memory alive through community work and a new children’s book inspired by her late daughter. She said that while grief has changed over time, it never completely goes away.

“Life still keeps going — you have no choice,” she said. “But gradually, you go from living day-to-day to week-to-week, and then month-to-month.”

Eileen Loughlin described the day of the accident

Eileen Loughlin recalled the accident day to be a normal Friday morning that she was on midterm break in 2018. Her children were at home playing with their friends when she was suddenly hit by a sharp noise. When she went to investigate, she discovered that Annabel had acquired a serious head injury.

“She experienced severe trauma to her head,” Loughlin said.

An ambulance was quickly dispatched to her house, and Annabel was subsequently airlifted to a nearby children's hospital. Loughlin explained that she believed doctors would inform her that her daughter would be all right, but the news was awful.

“I was brought in to talk to a doctor, and I thought they’d say she was OK,” she said. “But instead, they told me she was going to die.”

Annabel died that night. Eileen Loughlin called the experience one that forever changed her life and the lives of her family.

“Everything was normal that morning,” she said. “Then everything stopped.”

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Keeping Annabel’s memory alive

Since Annabel died, Eileen Loughlin and her family have concentrated on keeping her memory alive. Just less than a year after the funeral, they organized Annabel's All-Stars, a charitable hurling competition that generated a considerable sum of money for three different organizations.

“It was great for us having the boys that you had a focus — you had to get up,” said Loughlin.

She explained that she struggled with guilt whenever she felt moments of happiness after the tragedy.

“We very much consciously said, ‘We need to lead by example. We need to show them it’s OK to live our life.’”

Recently, Eileen Loughlin has used her memories of her daughter to write a children's book entitled Annabel's Adventures at the Beach. She explained that the idea had come from a notebook where she had been writing down memories of Annabel when she died.

“I’m a primary school teacher and a mother, so I have spent hours reading children’s picture books,” she said. “It just came to me that I would write one in memory of Annabel.”

The book features drawings of their family, including their youngest daughter, who was born after Annabel’s death and is symbolized as a butterfly.

“We talk about it — we’re open,” said Loughlin. “We talk with our friends and family about Annabel, about life, about happy days, sad days.”

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