AN inquest heard yesterday how a student drowned in the Shannon last summer after being asked to leave a boat trip because he was drunk.
A jury found that Mr Terry McGovern (18), of Gortaquill, Milltown, Belturbet, Co Cavan, drowned in the river at Carrick on Shannon but it declined to make any recommendations concerning the safety arrangements at the quayside where the boat usually moored.
Evidence was given at the inquest before the Co Leitrim coroner, Mr M.P. Keane - that there were no protective railings at the quayside where the Moon River usually moored and from where the body of Mr McGovern was taken on July 2nd, two days after he had been among a group attending a disco on board the craft.
The boat, owned and operated by Carrick on Shannon Marine Development Ltd, had been hired out by the social committee attached to the Slieve Russell Hotel in Ballyconnell.
Garda Patrick Popplewell described how he found Mr McGovern's body in the river, 12 feet from the bank and a short distance from where the boat berthed.
In reply to the McGovern family's barrister, Mr Paul Me Morrow, Garda Popplewell agreed that extra care would have to be taken in escorting someone from the boat who had excess drink taken.
Dr Nessa O'Donnell said the findings of her postmortem examination at Sligo General Hospital were that Mr McGovern, a Leaving Cert student and part time hotel waiter, died from drowning.
Ms Shirley Sweeney, assistant to the general manager at the Slieve Russell Hotel, said the boat's owners drew her attention to the fact that Mr McGovern was too drunk to go on the trip and that it would be safer if he stayed on land.
Asked by Mr McMorrow about abandoning a youth in a seriously drunken state on the riverbank, she replied: "I thought he was safe and OK. I thought he was safer than on the boat."