A 13-year-old boy drowned attempting to rescue his friend who had fallen into a river after they drank gin mixed with energy drinks, an inquest was told.
Oisín Quigley, a second year student, entered the River Lyreen to help his friend who was struggling to get out. He lost his footing and was swept away by the current on February 23 last year.
Oisín was one of three second year students who skipped school at Maynooth post primary that day. The two boys and one girl met in the morning and brought blankets to a field next to the river, outside the Co Kildare town.
One of the three brought two bottles of gin which they mixed with an energy drink. They talked and drank at a spot close to the river at Laraghbryan.
The 13-year-old girl told the inquest she did not recall the details of what happened but remembered the two boys trying to help her out of the river.
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“Oisín reached too far and fell in,” the girl said. She said she was unable to hold on to his hand and he floated away. “Oisín looked so panicked, I remember him spinning around and the current taking him.”
The third teenager said they were trying to rescue the girl from the bank of the river when Oisín fell in. “Oisín lost his grip and slipped in. I brought [the girl] back to the bank and looked up and he wasn’t there. I grabbed her phone to call an ambulance,” he said.
Dublin coroner’s court was told that the initial emergency call was made at 3.36pm. The caller was distressed and intoxicated, and there was initial confusion as to the location of the teenagers.
Garda Garvan Kelleher was dispatched at 3.50pm and arrived at 3.55pm. Firefighters first pulled out the girl who was clinging to the riverbank for safety and then began to search for Oisín in cold water up to 1.7 metres deep. He was spotted just under the surface about 50 metres from where he fell in and was recovered from the water at 4.20pm.
He was taken to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, where he was pronounced dead at 6.14pm.
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A toxicology screening revealed a blood alcohol level of 235 milligrams per cent.
“He was a lovely lad, a good lad,” Eric Quigley, Oisín’s father, said.
Returning a verdict of death by misadventure, the coroner Myra Cullinane said she hoped the case might prevent other young people from engaging in similar behaviour.
“The very sad and tragic facts of this case speak for themselves. It serves to remind young people the risks attached to certain behaviour,” she said.