THE HUSBAND of a 57-year-old American tourist who died on September 20th last in a fall on Skellig Michael, off the Kerry coast, yesterday called for safety measures to prevent further fatalities on the rock.
Christine Spooner, from Rochester, New York, was the second person to die in a fall at the same spot on the Unesco world heritage site, last year.
In an emotional message read at an inquest into her death in Caherciveen, her husband, Richard, who was with her the day she lost her life, said nobody should suffer what she suffered, and no other family should have to deal with such a loss.
“No other person should have to remember the scene that I cannot forget,” he wrote, recalling how his wife had lain injured as a German doctor and nurses tried to save her for an hour before she died.
Last May, another American, Joseph Gaughan (77), from Wilkbar, Pennsylvania, had fallen to his death at the same area of the rock.
A stairway of about 600 stone steps, which do not have protective railings, leads to the summit of the rock, which contains 7th century monastic remains.
The inquest was told the Office of Public Works (OPW) had initiated an independent health and safety review of Skellig Míchael, and a draft report should be available in three weeks.
Mr Spooner said his wife did not need to die, and the area where she and Mr Gaughan had met their deaths could be made safe without interfering with the view, or the monastic remains.
Witnesses told of seeing Ms Spooner fall about 30ft and hitting her head off a ledge. She died on the rock from serious head injuries before a helicopter could remove her to hospital.
Coroner Terence Casey, who had previously called for warning signs to be erected on Skellig, said signs had been put up but they had not solved the problem.
It was now essential for the OPW to erect some type of barrier to prevent further deaths, he stressed.
Stating that the area where the incidents occurred was a serious danger to the public, Mr Casey felt a protective stone wall, or black railing, would not damage the integrity of the site.