The heartbroken mother of Robby Kinlan, the young Quilty man who died in Thailand last week has said she is thankful to the West Clare community who have wrapped themselves around her and her family as they mourn Robby.
Robby, who had just turned 21 in November, was on the island of Koh Tao in Thailand to complete his masters certificate in free diving, when he passed away on January 9.
Speaking to The Clare Champion, Tracy King has acknowledged the community for the immense kindness they have shown in comforting her family at this devastating time.
“In West Clare, we always pull together, and it is a real comfort here to have such a small close knit community who pull themselves around you at a time like this. It has hit everybody far and wide,” she said.
Robby started diving at the tender age of 12 at the Lahinch Dive Academy, and then when the dive school moved to Inis Mór on the Aran Islands, he continued with them. The Guziuk family run the academy, and their daughter Julia, who was a friend of Robby’s was with him when he passed away. She has become Tracy’s contact on the island as the family wait to repatriate his body.
“He had a ticket to Thailand booked at 20 years old and he said to me ‘I’m going to Thailand’. He left on November 20 because he spent the summer on Inis Mór with the dive academy achieving their dive masters,” she said.
“He’d reached the very top of his dive masters certificate and got that in the summer. He was part of the team, working there for a few weeks after he finished his cert.”
Initially, Robby went to Thailand to work but while there, he became even more interested in freediving. Having recently completed his advanced freediving cert which he did over two months, he was working towards his masters qualification.
“I was very very proud of him, and he was doing so very well, and he was just about to do his masters,” his mother said.
Freediving involves diving to deep depths on one breath, and according to Tracy, her son had in recent times been able to dive to around 32.8 metres or more.
“He’d been doing it all his life but not to that extent. He ‘crushed’ that, he was told by one of the instructors – he flew it,” she said.
“He was always very adventurous. I was trying to harness that into a trade or farming but at the end of it all he worked on a local farm here with our lovely neighbour but that wasn’t for him.
“He went to school at St Joseph’s Spanish Point and left after the Junior Certificate and went off to college and tried farming and a trade….He didn’t like to exercise like mad; he wanted to dive and to be swimming. But fitness was a target for the masters in free diving.
“He loved Thailand. I know it has a reputation as a dangerous spot but he was very, very happy there. I guess it’s what you make it. It’s an extreme sports island and it’s an adventure island. He really loved it. He loved the water because that was his focus. There is beautiful visibility in the water on the island in comparison to here in Ireland where you dive in the most difficult conditions in the world. He was following his dream.”
Tracy said the initial postmortem results have shown that Robby passed away as a result of an acute pulmonary cardiac failure.
Prior to his passing, he was seen driving back to his bungalow. However, when his friend Amy later knocked on his door, she discovered him unresponsive, and there was no evidence of foul-play.
“He was found in bed in his boxers, and with his phone charging beside him,” she said.
“He passed away in his bed, and afterwards he was placed in the most beautiful temple.
“They floated flower petals out onto the sea for him, and Julia managed to get hold of some Guinness and they had a beautiful ceremony. And then there are those monks who are around the temple – all of that has been a huge comfort to us.”
Julia took a photo of the temple scene the day after and sent it to Tracy which has helped her in her grief however, she is thinking of Julia and his other young friends all the time.
“My heart was there with those youngsters. I want to help her [Julia] with that, and to have her with him; she’s been right there on it…We were thinking we could go out there to him but James O’ Friel [the undertaker in Miltown Malbay] said as soon as we would get there he would be moved, and so we decided to stay,” she said.
Robby is mourned by his older brother Tommy King who he was very close to, and his father Gerry Kinlan who lives in county Wicklow.
He was also especially close to his maternal uncles, Brian and Stephen who have supported him, along with his immediate family, in pursuing his passion for diving over the years.
His mother also acknowledged his “lovely” circle of friends from far and wide saying that while he had a large circle, they welcomed other groups.
The Guziuk family has organised a fundraising appeal on behalf of Tracy King to help the family get Robby’s home. Over €44,000, has been raised to date on GoFundMe.
Sharon Dolan D’Arcy covers West Clare news. After completing a masters in journalism at University of Galway, Sharon worked as a court reporter at the Sligo Weekender. She was also editor of the Athenry News and Views.