After the sentencing of Sean Lundon for the manslaughter of Brian Gorey on board the 'LE Eithne', unsettling questions remain, writes Carl O'Brien.
In the low-ceilinged recreation room the sailors were joking, chatting and drinking, letting off a bit of steam after spending a few days at sea. A bottle of Baileys was shared around in some pint glasses. Some bottles of Fosters' Ice were produced and a few cans of Heineken were opened. One of the crew produced a camera and took a few photos. "We were happy," said one of them later, "we were just having a bit of a laugh."
A few hours later, shortly after 5 a.m., a "man overboard" alarm sounded across the boat. The body of one of the crew, Brian Gorey (21) had been found in the water. He had lacerations to the forehead and bruises to the face. Under his soaking polo shirt, there was a cut to the chest. It later emerged his head had been beaten with a brush handle, which smashed into pieces during the assault, and he had ended up falling overboard.
Yesterday, his colleague, Sean Lundon (21), who joined the Navy just a few months earlier, was sentenced to five years in prison for the manslaughter of Brian Gorey on the morning of April 22nd, 2001, at Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin. While the sentencing represents a moment of long-awaited closure for the Gorey family, more than two years after his death, it also opens the door on a number of unsettling questions for the Naval Service. Following yesterday's sentence, an internal "court of inquiry" was established into the circumstances surrounding the killing of Gorey.
How did the sailors have such easy access to drink after-hours despite strict regulations? Were the levels of security monitoring on board the ship sufficient to protect the health and safety of the crew? And how could all of this take place, not in a nightclub or a side street, but aboard the flagship vessel of the Navy, the LE Eithne?
Brian Gorey from Castletroy View, Limerick, had always wanted to join the Navy. After leaving school, he went straight into the service at 17. While he wasn't an exceptionally strong young man, he volunteered in often hazardous rescue efforts. On two occasions he helped pull bodies from the sea. During his two-and-a-half years serving on the Eithne, "Gores", as colleagues knew him, was easygoing and popular with the crew.
Sean Lundon from James Connolly Park, Tipperary town, was a raw 19-year-old recruit. He had joined the Navy several weeks earlier as an apprentice mechanic. The voyage to Dublin was one of his first significant periods at sea, according to the Garda.
The day after the boat docked in Dublin on Friday, April 20th 2001, its 64 sailors had the day off, except for a small duty crew on a 24-hour shift. Many of the off-duty ones headed into the city-centre that evening where they drank in different pubs. Gorey returned to the LE Eithne at about midnight, to get a pint before the bar in the recreation room closed. Lundon went to Busker's nightclub where he drank between eight and 10 pints before returning to the ship at around 3.30 a.m.
As crew returned back on board they were checked in by a duty officer. Some headed to their cabins, others headed to the "rec room", where there was "a bit of a party going on", according to one crew member. Despite the closing hours for serving drink on board, some of the crew appeared to have their own supply. By 5 a.m., the only two people left in the room were Lundon and Gorey, who had been lying asleep on the couch for some time.
What happened next is unclear. Lundon says he tried to shake Gorey to see if he wanted to go to bed. He claimed Gorey threw an ashtray at him. Lundon says he reacted by punching him in the face with clenched fists and hitting him on the head with a brush handle. Gorey apparently fell to the floor. Lundon then says he picked him up and took him up on deck for some air. "I was sitting him down on the ledge of the afterdeck," Lundon later told gardaí, ". . . just then he pushed me away. He slipped and was gone from me. He was gone into the water." Gorey seemed to be struggling to stay afloat, witnesses recalled. When the lifebuoy was thrown, he didn't seem to make any attempt to reach it. Then he stopped moving.
He was face down in the water, the back of his head visible in the water. "I saw a head in the water," said Duty Petty Officer O'Flynn, "and knowing his hairstyle, I knew it was Gores."
In the dead of night, Brian Gorey drowned in the dark cold water of the Liffey, within sight of the Seaman's Memorial which looks down from City Quay.
Lundon's involvement in the incident was never really in question, although he initially sought to distance himself from the killing. Gardaí seized a pair of bloodstained trousers that Lundon initially denied he'd worn on the night. To the jury, which considered the matter last month, the question was whether the killing of Gorey was manslaughter or murder. The jury decided unanimously after several hours deliberation it was manslaughter.
What makes the killing of Gorey all the more inexplicable is the absence of any clear motive for the attack. Investigating gardaí say there was no "adverse history" or animosity between the two men. With so much alcohol consumed, however, it raises the question of what role drink played in all this.
Alcohol is something that's always been associated with sailors. The heavy-drinking hordes who stream in to port town pubs from ships which dock after lengthy periods at sea are almost a cliché. On the boats, too, it has occasionally become an issue.
Three Naval Service crewmen were disciplined for drinking on duty in July 2000 aboard the LE Eithne. But naval officers and former members of the defence forces say it's not a problem.
"It's a very stressful environment," says one former defence forces officer. "Picture a constantly vibrating office that goes up and down and rolls around; a place where your normal sleep patterns are disturbed. So when you reach dry land, of course there's a release. People will go on the tear."
If anything, says one naval source, it's the older recruits who drink to excess, while younger members are generally more sensible and career-focused.
A spokesman for the Naval Service also points out that there are severe repercussions for anyone who flouts the rules and regulations of the Navy.
An internal court of inquiry investigates serious incidents, while the captain of a vessel may take disciplinary steps such as docking an individual's pay.
"We're the same as anyone else," says a spokesman for the Naval Service, "it's very easy to identify us and we don't want a reputation for inappropriate behaviour and would frown on any such incident."
Because of the secrecy and sensitivity surrounding the incident, the findings of the internal court of inquiry may never become public knowledge.
But whatever measures it takes, it can never answer whether Brian's Gorey's death was the result of a rare and cruel twist of circumstance, or something that might have been avoided if there were greater safeguards on the vessel.
For his father, speaking after the jury's verdict, his main concern is getting over the loss of his son. "We have to accept it and move on. It's over . . . the naval life was what he always wanted, that's what he got."