Coroner: Alcohol abuse to blame for many deaths

A CORONER has blamed alcohol for a growing number of deaths in Ireland.

Speaking at the inquest into the death of Dubliner Denise Condron, Dublin City Coroner Dr Brian Farrell said: “Alcohol dependency is an illness we see all too often here at the coroner’s court.”

Ms Condron, 33, of Ballymun, Dublin, died on June 22, 2010. A postmortem carried out by Dr Anthony Dorman, a pathologist at Beaumont Hospital, found she had died from complications of cirrhosis of the liver. He found toxic levels of prescription medication in her system but attributed this to the fact her liver was not functioning properly and would not have been metabolising the medication, he said.