A HOLIDAY to Killarney, Co Kerry, turned to tragedy for a family yesterday when their young son drowned after getting into difficulties while swimming with his father.
The five-year-old boy, who had not been named last night, is from Ballymun in Dublin. He got into difficulties just after 11am while swimming in the pool of the Gleneagle Hotel.
He drowned despite desperate attempts by lifeguards and the ambulance service to revive him.
“Every effort was made to revive the boy but the results were negative. He was taken from the scene to Kerry General Hospital where he was later pronounced dead,” a Garda spokesman said.
A postmortem took place last night. The spokesman said that while an inquest would be held to establish the full circumstances, the boy’s death was being treated as an accident.
The boy’s family were spending a few days on holiday in Killarney, and the tragedy shocked staff at the hotel.
He was swimming in the children’s pool in the hotel’s Aquila Club Leisure Centre.
The hotel is owned and run by the O’Donoghue family. Hotel managing director Patrick O’Donoghue is a former mayor of Killarney and a former director of Fáilte Ireland.
In a statement, the hoteliers said they were devastated by what had happened.
“We are deeply saddened by today’s events and our thoughts are with the family at this time,” the statement said.
“The pool was fully supervised at the time of the accident with two qualified lifeguards and all the appropriate steps were taken. All the relevant authorities have been notified.”
The pool remained closed yesterday following the boy’s death.