Four die in series of tragic weekend accidents

FOUR people died in a series of tragic incidents at the weekend.

Danny Gallagher, 47, a father of five from Co Donegal, was killed when felling a tree on Saturday, to allow more light into his brother’s home outside Termon village.

It appears the 25ft palm tree changed direction when falling and Mr Gallagher, who worked for the ESB, was caught by its top branches as he tried to escape.

Meanwhile, a man died in a fire in Dublin early yesterday. Four other men were rescued from the building by two gardaí on patrol on St Joseph’s Avenue in Drumcondra.

The officers saw smoke coming from the property at about 4.30am and broke into the building. The four men, who were asleep in a downstairs flat, were awoken and led to safety.

Fire crews were called to tackle the blaze in an upstairs flat where the body of a man in his 20s, believed to be from Dublin, was found.

In Co Clare, a man died after being thrown overboard from a small dinghy while fishing on Saturday.

The man in his 40s, believed to be eastern European and living in Limerick, was tossed into the sea from the six foot vessel close to Donegal Point, about 6km north of Kilkee.

The alarm was raised by a man on the shore who saw that the fisherman was in difficulty. The fisherman was unconscious when taken from the water by members of Kilkee Marine Rescue Service.

The man, who had been in the water for over 30 minutes and was not wearing a flotation device, was air-lifted to the Mid Western Regional Hospital where he later died.

Another man in his 30s died yesterday when his motorcycle collided with a ditch in Co Wicklow.

Wicklow gardaí are appealing for witnesses to the road fatality which happened at approximately 10.30am at Military Road in the Wicklow Gap.

Meanwhile, the body of Markus Salumi Niemenin, 23, was recovered from the sea at Cloghmore, Achill, Co Mayo on Saturday evening.

Mr Niemenin, a student at Waterford Institute of Technology, was swept into the sea by a large wave on Thursday while taking photographs along the coastal Atlantic Drive.

Efforts to recover the body had been hampered by heavy seas.

There have been calls for better warning signs along the south Achill coastline.

In April 2005, a 29-year-old Polish man died after losing his footing and falling over a cliff.