Wind, rain and hail swept down on Clondalkin as the search for missing teenagers David White and Shane Coughlan got under way yesterday.
David White, an apprentice painter from Carrickmore Avenue, Citywest, and Shane Coughlan from Millpark, Clondalkin, were last seen leaving a house in the Clondalkin area at 4.30am on Sunday. They were at a friend's house in the Lindisfarne area on Saturday night and told their friends they were leaving to buy cigarettes and phone credit at a local garage.
Gardaí searched the banks of the Grand Canal yesterday before sub-aqua divers began scouring its depths at 11am.
The families of the two 18 year olds, as well as friends and neighbours, spent much of the day peering over the section of Fonthill Road that overlooks the canal as the search went on.
At about noon, word began to spread that a body had been found and many of the crowd broke down in tears. Small mercy though it was, it did mean, at least, a sense of closure could be possible for one of the families. For the other family, an agonising wait continued.
Gardaí returned at 2pm and began searching the area close to the lock below Fonthill Road. When no body was found there, divers recommenced their underwater search of the canal. By 2.30pm the wind and rain had picked up again and a hailstone shower made it yet more difficult for the divers in the chilly canal water. Shortly after 4pm the search was called off for the day.
Friends and neighbours of the two men described them yesterday as very popular. "They were good lads," said one man who knew David Moore. "They were very quiet and never in any trouble." A girl said they were "sound fellas" who were "always smiling".
The families of the two men did not wish to speak to The Irish Times yesterday.
The body yesterday was found close to where Keith Mahon (13) and Jason Ryan (10) died 10 years ago. Keith died in hospital shortly after he dived into the water at the ninth lock, where Jason had become entangled in a submerged shopping trolley.