A MAN who travelled to Dublin for a concert had taken ecstasy before he went into the river Liffey and drowned, an inquest has heard.
Stephen Burke (20), Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, was seen falling into the Liffey on August 24th last year, an hour before his body was recovered. The postmortem revealed he had taken a “significant” amount of ecstasy.
The court heard yesterday that Mr Burke had travelled from Wexford with friends that day to attend a Flogging Molly gig in the Olympia Theatre and they had been drinking on Dame Street before the event. He became separated from friends in the Olympia.
Mr Burke was briefly seen at 10.50 pm by Valera Yaskovich, a member of the security staff at Fitzsimon’s Hotel, sitting on the quay walls before jumping back on to the footpath. Mr Yaskovich glanced away and when he looked back he saw Mr Burke’s legs going over the wall.
He raised the alarm and went to retrieve a nearby life float but had difficulty freeing it from the pole and had to burn through the ropes to get it off.
By the time he returned Mr Burke had drifted down the river and was beneath the water. Another member of the security staff Cormac Hanratty told the court that Mr Burke was swimming before getting into trouble.
Dublin Fire Brigade attended the scene and retrieved the body from the water. CPR was attempted but Mr Burke was pronounced dead at the Mater hospital a short time later.
The postmortem gave the cause of death as drowning. A toxicology screen revealed a large amount of alcohol in his system and a toxic level of ecstasy. Mr Burke’s friends said there were no indications that he intended to harm himself.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell said ecstasy caused an increase in risk-taking. He returned a verdict of death by misadventure, adding that it was not the first time the court had heard evidence of difficulties with life floats along the river.