Tag Archives: County Coroner Isobel O’Dea

Ninety-four-year-old Peggy Morrissey died after her car crashed into a field “on a very bad night storm-wise” while she was en route to the safety of her son, RTE broadcaster, Marty Morrissey, an inquest has heard. At the County Clare Coroner’s court in Kilrush, Marty Morrissey stated that he agreed with his mother, Peggy that she would stay with him at the Old Ground hotel in Ennis on the night of December 6 last year as Storm Barra was due to hit the west coast of Clare the following day. In a deposition, Mr Morrissey told the coroner’s court that he last spoke to Peggy at 11.36pm on December 6 by phone before she set off in her Silver Renault Clio and the two arranged that they would meet at the village of Inagh before journeying onto Ennis. However, within an hour at 12.35am, Mr Morrissey was in a field in west Clare identifying his mother’s body to the emergency …

A MEMBER of the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard has helped to talk down “11 or 12 people” contemplating taking their own lives at the Cliffs of Moher. Thomas Doherty has been a volunteer with the unit for the last 30 years and he said that over the course of that time, he has talked down 11 or 12 people from the cliff edge “from an 80-year-old woman to a woman in her 40s”. The softly spoken and self-effacing Doolin man said, “Anybody that has been on the edge has come back for me. It is a good success rate actually. I hope it stays that way.” Asked what he says to people he suspects may be about to jump, Mr Doherty said, “I ask them straight out, ‘are they thinking about self-harm?’ You have to get straight to the point.” Mr Doherty has undergone specialist training to deal with such situations and said, “If they say they want …

A KILMALEY man was found to have died from a heart attack and no evidence was found in the post mortem that an incident in a pub contributed to his death, an inquest heard this week. Anthony McElroy of Knockatunna, Kilmaley was pronounced dead in Ballynacally on January 25, 2014. At a sitting of Clare’s Coroner’s Court, County Coroner Isobel O’Dea outlined there was a difficulty with identification of the deceased man, who was known as Anthony McElroy for the past 40 years, and as a result the inquest would need to be adjourned. However, it was decided to hear the medical evidence in the case and Assistant State pathologist, Dr Margaret Anne Bolster told the court that the deceased man was “at risk of sudden death at any time”. Dr Bolster noted that there was a linear laceration to the deceased man’s face but considering where the man was found, lying face down on an area where there were …