A Lough Derg community has been plunged into mourning following the death of a local teenager in a farming accident.
Nenagh Gardaí are investigating a fatality involving a 15 year-old from Ballina on a farm in Carrigatoher, Nenagh on Sunday at about 3.30pm.
According to the Garda Press Office, the teenager was pronounced dead at the scene at the Health and Safety Authority has been notified.
He has been named locally as Padraig McCormack, Ryninch, Ballina, Killaloe.
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has confirmed it is carrying out a separate investigation into the accident, which occurred on the teenager’s uncle’s farm.
Investigators from the HSA visited the scene of the accident on Monday and spoke to a number of people in relation to the incident.
The HSA will be completing a report on this incident, which will not be published. This is the first farm fatality in 2018. Last year, 24 people lost their lives in farming accidents throughout the country.
The teenager, who was a Junior Certificate student at St Anne’s Secondary School, Killaloe had a keen interest in horses and was a member of the East Clare Hunt.
A local said the whole community was “stunned over his death”. It is unbelievable to see someone so young dying,” he said.
Dan Danaher
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.