Holding her new prosthetic eye in the palm of her hand, Alanna Quinn Idris smiled and said: “It’s lovely, isn’t it?”
The tiny white implant, which she received from the Súil Nua Optical Clinic in Dublin, was cast for her after she lost her right eye in an unprovoked assault nearly three years ago.
It was New Year’s Eve 2021, and Alanna — who was just 17-years-old — was attacked by four young men while walking home with a male friend.
She was beaten so badly with a saddle of a bicycle over her head and face that she ended up losing an eye.
It was an attack that sparked fury across the country and led to many protests, including one in her hometown of Ballyfermot.
“It was like something out of a horror movie,” she told the .
“My friend was covered in blood when I woke up and I had no idea what had happened, I was in and out of consciousness.
Last year, two men of the men were convicted of the assault. Darragh Lyons, aged 19, of Chapelizod, Dublin, was jailed for four-and-a-half years.
Josh Cummins, aged 19, of Raheen Drive in Ballyfermot, was sentenced to three years in jail. Both had part of their sentence suspended.
Another man has been charged and is awaiting trial. A fourth man was never caught.
Despite the trauma of that night, Ms Quinn Idris was delighted to reveal her “beautiful new eye” this week.
“Do you want to hold it?” she asked, before describing how the cast was made in Dublin before being sent to France to be hand-painted.
“It took five surgeries to get here, and they were all under general anesthetic,” she said.
“There was emergency surgery on the night it [the attack] happened, then they did a bone graft to rebuild the socket.”
Alanna received her prosthetic eye in March of this year. Picture: Moya Nolan
The surgeries aren’t finished yet.
“I have another surgery in September to lift my bottom lower lid, to make it more equal with the other one, so that will be nice,” she added.
The young woman is open and frank about what happened to her, and said speaking and laughing at times about the assault helps with her “healing”.
“I’ve never gone to counselling over it,” she said.
“I may do in the future, but I don’t really bottle things up. Don’t get me wrong, of course I have had my moments, I grieve the past and what might have been, but I’ve accepted what’s happened.
“I can’t change it.”
Her medical team were clear from the start that she was likely to lose her eye which, she says, helped as she didn’t have any false hope.
“I just accepted it, my eye is gone, but I still have the same face and I think I’m beautiful. I’m a pretty girl, so I just get on with it and talk about it,” Alanna says.
Turning to her prosthetic eye sitting on the table, she laughed and said: “Do you want to hold it?”
As we examined the tiny delicate piece, Alanna explained she has to wash it with soap before putting it back in, and it has to be polished every three years.
Holding a 3D scan of the damage done to her skull during the assault, Alanna said: “My bones were crushed in the socket, so they had to make a base for the shell to replace that.
“The white you see now where my right eye was, that is fat, and the fake eye just sits on it.
After washing the prosthetic, Alanna put her new eye back in and it was hard to tell the difference.
“Only the left one moves more, and they’re not always in sync,” she said.
The young woman is naturally beautiful, and lights up a room when she is speaking. She was positively radiant throughout our three-hour conversation, and does not see herself as a victim.
“God no,” she said.
“I just accepted it. My little brothers and sisters are no different, because they know I’m ok, and my two youngest brothers weren’t born when it happened — they have never seen me any other way.
“I try not to let it affect my life as much as it could.”
Alanna and her male friend were getting off a bus in Ballyfermot when the assault unfolded.
Doctors tried to save Alanna’s eye, but it became apparent quickly that this was not possible. Picture: Moya Nolan
“There were words said between this man and my friend, but we went our separate ways and I thought that was it,” she said.
“Then we were sitting outside another friend’s house. We saw two lads coming from different directions towards us. Darragh Lyons was the first one that came over.
“He was coming straight for my friend, and I panicked and got between them. Darragh punched me in the face. Then I saw them hitting my friend with hurleys and saddles.
“I don’t remember much, but I woke up on the ground, people had got out of cars to stop it.
“I remember people trying to keep me awake, and I couldn’t feel my face and I knew it wasn’t right.
“It was like being in a dream, you know when you’re trying to do something, but your body won’t let you. It was like that.
“People were trying to get me to unlock my phone to ring my mam, but I couldn’t.
“I saw my friend sitting on the footpath, drenched in blood, and I was freaking out.”
Doctors tried to save Alanna’s eye, but it became apparent quickly that this was not possible.
For months afterward, Alanna struggled to get out of bed. She lost weight and could not eat properly due to the pain in her face.
She had fractured bones in her face, a broken tooth, and crushed bones in her eye socket.
“I couldn’t open my mouth all the way. It was too painful. I was eating baby food through a straw,” she explains.
“The injuries were my eye, concussion, and a broken tooth, as well as fractures in her face and sinus.
“There is also learning to live with the different feelings around my face.
“It is a weird sensation even now three years on.
“I can’t smell out of my nose on the right side as well as the other side. I’m living with it, you just have to, I can’t choose not to.
“I can’t be upside down either, so I can’t bend down to tie my laces, I feel pressure. It’s a horrible feeling.”
Despite her shocking ordeal and the support she has received from her family, friends, and community, she admitted that some people taunted her online at the time and continue to do so.
She says she often receives comments or criticism on her TikTok videos or Instagram posts.
“I just don’t let them exist in my world, they’re in jail — that is their life, and this is mine.”
As she scrolled through photos on her phone she said: “I also wanted to document my journey from the assault to now.”
Choosing a new eye took time and much “trial and error”, she said.
Peter O’Gorman was the ocularist, specialising in the fabrication and fitting of ocular prostheses for people who have lost an eye or eyes due to trauma or illness.
“I didn’t want it to be the exact same as I was before,” she explained.
“My other eye is dark brown, I said I’d go for hazel. But honestly, Peter O’Gorman, he is so amazing. He can do unicorns and love hearts, he can pretty much do whatever you want. It’s unreal, isn’t it?”
However, she said she is still getting used to the new eye.
“I’m so used to having one,” she said.
“My mam and nanny are always saying: ‘Why don’t you wear it?’
“Sometimes I want to wear it and other times I don’t. I’m so used to not having an eye.
“I am a bit lazy too, if I’m honest. I don’t always put it in. I shouldn’t treat it like an accessory, but sometimes I do.
“It takes a bit of getting used to because I do walk into people, I walk into walls and stuff. I can only see out of one eye.
“I have to watch myself on stairs and I have to grip a banister. Balance and coordination are a bit learning curve.”
Alanna Quinn Idris lost the sight in her right eye in December 2021, following a serious assault on Ballyfermot Rd. Picture: Moya Nolan
Alanna’s honesty is deeply refreshing, and the bravery and acceptance she displays is inspiring.
When asked how she feels about what was done to her, she said: “Well I was permanently disfigured, and that’s really what I want to tell people. They left me permanently disfigured.
“One guy was never caught, there was not enough evidence, but he is the guy that took my eye away from me.
“That’s hard to take sometimes, but I am disfigured forever.”
The oldest of six, Alanna is close to her mother Jamie, a midwife from Dublin, and her Nigerian father, Ahmed, a DJ with Spin radio.
“My dad found what happened to me very hard to accept,” she said.
“My mother became so protective afterward, but now everyone can see I’m getting on with it.”
Born in 2004, Alanna went to her local all-girls secondary school, Caritas College, where she sat her Leaving Certificate after the assault.
“I was in sixth year when the attack happened,” she said, adding that she insisted on doing her exams afterwards.
There are still challenges in adapting.
“I was going to school with sunglasses on as the lights were hard to deal with,” Alanna says.
“I was sensitive, but I don’t need extra care, I did adapt.
“If the light changes, like at a concert, it takes about 30 seconds to adjust.
“There was a lot to adapt to, but honestly, I will never be silent about it, and I have to stand up to people who still call me a ‘pure victim’.
“While those lads will be out soon, I will still be like this.
“At the end of the day, I’ll always get to be myself, and they will always have to live with what they did.
“I walk around Ballyfermot with confidence. I’m not afraid of them and they’re not taking over my life.
“I also want to thank everyone who messages me or stops me on the street. I am very grateful for their support, and I’m sometimes just a bit awkward and don’t know how to respond, but I am really thankful to everyone who has supported me.”
