Polish man drowns near Loop Head

THE body of 29-year-old Polish man Andreas Marek was recovered from the sea at the Bridges of Ross by divers from Kilkee Sub Aqua Club on Monday. He is the eighth foreign national to drown in West Clare since 2006.

The man, who had been living in Nenagh and had travelled to West Clare on a day trip, was fishing on a ledge when he was swept into the sea on Sunday.
Emergency services and the coast guard were informed and a search was launched for the man. Kilkee Marine Rescue Service and Kilrush RNLI also received call-outs as part of the operation.
The search resumed on Monday morning and divers from Kilkee Sub Aqua Club recovered the body at around 1.30pm, approximately 100m away from the area he fell into the water.
The body was transferred to the Kilkee Marine Rescue boat, which was on standby during the operation and from there it was brought to Kilkee for formal identification purposes. Navy divers who were due to carry out a co-ordinated search of the area called off their operation on hearing the news.
A post-mortem is expected to be carried out on the body but it is believed that the man drowned after being swept into the sea by a wave.
Four years ago another Polish man died at Tullig Point just a short distance from Sunday’s tragedy while over 30 years ago, a Limerick man fell in to the sea at the same location. Neither body has ever been recovered.
Sunday’s tragedy brings to eight the number of foreign nationals who have died in accidents on the Clare coast since 2006.

Warning signs can’t be everywhere
CLARE Water Safety Officer Liam Griffin told The Clare Champion that there is no pictorial sign present at the location where Andreas Marek drowned last Sunday.
However, he noted it is impossible to have signs warning people against fishing at every coastal location.
“We put pictorial signs in places where we thought, at the time, were likely danger places. But every place back there is a likely place and can you litter the place with signs? You could put signs from Ballyvaughan down to Loop Head but you’ll miss some spot along the way, something will happen and people will say ‘why didn’t ye have a sign there?’ I know that we had a ring buoy that was used in the rescue attempt at the weekend. As far as a specific sign is concerned, there is none at that particular place,” Mr Griffin explained.
The county’s water safety officer said the presence of signs don’t guarantee that people will comply with the warning not to fish. He cited an example at the Blue Pool in Doonbeg, where signs were erected but people continued to fish.
“People who subsequently lost their lives had to walk past those signs to get to where they were going fishing. How effective are they either? You don’t know,” he commented.
Mr Griffin believes not everyone appreciates the danger posed by the ocean. “You’re going to the sea and not alone are you going to the sea, you’re going to the Atlantic Ocean. I know of a number of companies where Polish people were working, that ran information seminars,” he explained.
On an additional note, he expressed his anger at the manner in which several of the ring buoys dotted around the county, have been damaged.
“I have something like 250 ring buoys around the county. A lot of them are along the west coast of the county and I did an inspection of them some time ago. An awful lot of them were blackguarded and vandalised. The ropes were taken off them and a ring buoy without a rope isn’t as effective,” he said.
“We’ve had a lot of our equipment damaged, particularly around north-west Clare. Up around Ballyvaughan and Fanore the ropes were taken off most of them,” he added.
Ring buoys have also been interfered with on the Newbridge Road in Ennis and in Abbey Street car park.
“Some people throw the signs into the river while more of them are using the boxes as litter bins. With 250 ring buoys around the county, obviously it’s very difficult to keep an eye on them at all times,” he concluded.