A 15-year-old student threw himself over a cliff after being involved in a "minor disciplinary" reprimand at his Dublin school, an inquest heard yesterday. The Dublin County Coroner's court was told that Sean McKenna, of Carrickhill Rise, Portmarnock, was a "very sensitive and reflective" student at Belvedere College, Great Denmark Street.
He went to Bray, Co Wicklow, on May 19th last and tore up his schoolbooks in the seafront toilet. His body was recovered on rocks the following day after he fell about 50 feet from the Bray-Greystones cliff walk.
Two local swimmers, Mr John Egan and Mr Adrian Duggan, alerted Bray Garda station after discovering a black bag at a bathing spot known as Naylors Cove.
Mr Egan, of O'Byrne Road, Bray, told the inquest in Dun Laoghaire that the bag contained schoolbooks which were "torn in bits".
Mr John Sunderland, a Bray urban council employee, gave evidence of the schoolboy brushing past him in the public toilets at the seafront about 7 p.m. on May 19th. Before locking the toilets he discovered school textbooks torn up in one of them.
Father Kennedy O'Brien said the student had been involved in "a minor disciplinary matter" at Belvedere College.
He added: "It was an ordinary everyday incident, but this schoolboy was more thoughtful and reflective."
A pathologist, Dr Niamh Nolan, said that death was due to multiple injuries, including a skull fracture and brain injury consistent with a fall.
Dr Bartley Sheehan, Dublin County Coroner, said the incident at the school may have impacted on the boy in a greater way than it would on anyone else. Regrettably, he had made more of it than was warranted.
The coroner recorded a verdict of death from multiple injuries sustained in a self-inflicted fall.