A 24-year-old man and his 20-year-old sister may have drowned trying to rescue their mother after she got into difficulty while swimming near a particularly treacherous stretch of river in north Cork, an inquest into the deaths of all three members of the family heard yesterday.
Coroner for north Cork Dr Michael Kennedy said it was possible to surmise that Ita Noonan (49) had got into difficulty in the Awbeg river near Castletownroche on the June bank holiday weekend and that her son, David, and daughter, Emma, tried to save her.
Dr Kennedy said he was basing this presumption on the type of clothing all three were wearing, in particular the fact that Mrs Noonan was found wearing a bikini while her daughter was wearing a pair of shorts over her swimsuit and her son was wearing trousers.
Dr Kennedy stressed that while it was possible to surmise that this was what occurred, it was impossible to know what exactly happened to the family and whether they drowned on June 4th or 5th when their bodies were discovered.
Dr Kennedy was speaking after hearing evidence from 12 witnesses, including Garda Conor Heddigan, Castletownroche, who said the stretch of the Awbeg river at Castlepool where the bodies were found was particularly dangerous. He said there were swirlpools of up to 16 feet deep, with one pool located quite close to the bank where somebody could easily enter the river thinking they were stepping into shallow water.
The inquest heard a statement from John Wolfe of Mallow search and rescue how a team of divers had located the body of Emma Noonan at around 8.30pm on June 5th in one such swirl pool which was 12 feet deep and subject to strong currents.
Mrs Noonan's brother Jim Rea said his sister and her children were "not great swimmers". The inquest also heard evidence that they had only moved to Castletownroche a few days earlier and would not have known how dangerous the river was.
Mrs Noonan's sister-in-law, Martina Lyons, told how she received a text from Mrs Noonan on June 3rd telling her that herself and Emma had "discovered a lovely river and were going there soon again".
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster confirmed that all three victims had drowned. While she had found that David Noonan had an alcohol level of 31mg per 100ml of blood, it was a very small amount, equivalent to one pint of beer.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death in the case of all three victims.