A CORONER has expressed concern about an area of the Grand Canal in Dublin where a 74-year-old man drowned, describing it as “one of the most dangerous inner city locations I’ve ever experienced”.
Thomas Sheridan, of Stella Gardens, Ringsend, Dublin, died of drowning on the afternoon of May 31st, 2009 at Camden Lough, Irishtown.
Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard two friends, Bernard Lindsey and Tom Ryan were making their way towards Ringsend on May 31st after a visit to the Tall Ships event on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay and were coming to the third gate at Camden Lough when Mr Lindsay noticed a body in the water. The lough is on the Grand Canal at the entrance to Grand Canal Basin.
Mr Lindsey called the emergency services and Mr Sheridan’s body was taken from the water. He was pronounced dead at 2.55pm. A postmortem found he died of drowning. Coroner Dr Brian Farrell said that it was the fourth inquest held at the Dublin City Coroner’s Court in six months into drownings in the area.
“The place itself is highly dangerous. We’ve had really serious concerns about the safety issue in and around Grand Canal Dock.
“I visited the scene. We’ve had three other inquests – two at Grand Canal Dock and one nearby in a short period of time. We have grave concerns about this particular location . . . we’ve heard of a number of near misses – people who had fallen in or nearly fallen in. And the area is used at night time by residents,” he said.
The coroner said it was a possibility that Mr Sheridan fell into the water given the fact that it’s a dangerous area.
However, because he did not know what happened and nobody saw Mr Sheridan enter the water, he was recording an open verdict.
He said he had already been in touch with the Dublin Docklands Development Authority and with Waterways Ireland and would contact them again in relation to this inquest. The inquest heard Mr Sheridan, who suffered from depression, left his home on the morning of May 31st and told his sister, Margaret Sheridan, with whom he lived, that he might go down to the loughs.
Ms Sheridan later became concerned about her brother and went to Ringsend Garda station where she told gardaí she worried for her brother’s safety.