A 40-year-old father of two children died on Friday night after he and his wife fell 20 feet from a bridge in Co Clare. The woman escaped injury and was said to be recovering at home yesterday.
The accident occurred at around 11.20 p.m. when the local man apparently "stumbled and fell" over the bridge at an area known as the Cascades in Ennistymon, north Clare.
It is thought the woman was grabbed by the man as he fell, in an effort to save himself, or she may have tried to hold her husband as he fell but was herself dragged over the wall.
It is known that the couple had been socialising prior to the accident.
They were walking home across the bridge when the tragedy occurred.
Two gardaí jumped from their patrol car and made their way down the bank to reach the couple, who were dragged from the water which was only a few feet deep at the time.
Efforts to resuscitate the man at the scene failed.
He was pronounced dead a short time later.
His body was removed to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.
A post-mortem examination was conducted on Saturday evening.
The results are expected to confirm whether the victim died from drowning or from an injury sustained in the fall.
His wife was treated at the scene by ambulance personnel but she did not require hospitalisation.
Gardaí in Ennistymon are treating the incident as an accident.
They are however continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.