Schoolboy (8) dies after river valley accident

An eight-year-old boy died in an accident in a fast-flowing river on Saturday afternoon on the Kerry/west Cork border.

An eight-year-old boy died in an accident in a fast-flowing river on Saturday afternoon on the Kerry/west Cork border.

The boy, named as Benjamin Cunnane, was with his father, an electrician, and two other adults.

They were working on a river turbine in the Borlin valley on the Kilgarvan to Bantry road, a narrow mountain pass.

Details are unclear but it appears the boy wandered into the river, the Borlin.

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He was found a short time afterwards by his father and was taken to Bantry General Hospital at around 3 p.m. on Saturday. Local gardaí say he was pronounced dead two hours later.

The dead boy was the youngest of four children of Gerry and Isabel Cunnane of Kilgarvan.

Councillor Danny Healy-Rae, whose children attend the same school as the dead boy, said local people were "numbed and shocked" by the tragedy.

A post-mortem was carried out at Bantry General Hospital yesterday.