Building contractor dies after fall from scaffolding

A WELL-KNOWN building contractor died after a fall from scaffolding he’d erected for a maintenance job on a three-storey building in East Cork.

Gardaí said they were treating the death of Michael O’Callaghan, a married father of two from Youghal, Co Cork as a “tragic accident”.

Mr O’Callaghan, who lived at O’Brien Place, Youghal, was working on the premises in the town centre when the accident occurred at 4.30pm yesterday. Garda sources said he had erected the scaffolding a few days earlier outside the premises at Friar Street and had gone up it yesterday to carry out work on a water tank when he fell approximately 15ft to the ground.

A Lithuanian employee saw Mr O’Callaghan sprawled on the ground and immediately contacted the owner of the house, who runs a hairdressers on the ground floor.

She rang the emergency services who were quickly on the scene.

Ambulance crews fought frantically to revive Mr O’Callaghan, who has a 20-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter.

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster is expected to carry out a post mortem on Mr O’Callaghan’s body today.