Polish canal body confirmed as missing Irish soccer fan

The family of an Irish soccer fan missing since Sunday flew to Poland last night as it was confirmed that the body pulled from a canal there was their loved one.

Yesterday morning police divers found James Nolan's body about 200m from where the 21-year-old went missing in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz.

Documentation, including a credit card belonging to the young man was found on the body. That documentation, as well as a sum of money and the lack of any injury, has led investigators to believe he was not the victim of a robbery which turned violent. An autopsy is expected to be carried out today.

The environmental engineering student at Tallaght Institute of Technology was last seen in Bydgoszcz at about 1.30am on Sunday. He had been socialising near the city’s old market square with friends. It is thought he became separated from them and they only realised he was missing the next morning when they went to his hotel room and realised he had not returned.

In the intervening days, a massive search effort involving 100 police officers, local volunteers, soccer fans, and his friends had found no sign of Mr Nolan. A comprehensive poster campaign was also mounted.

In Ireland, a social media campaign appealed from any help from Irish soccer fans who had remained in Poland despite Ireland’s exit from the Euro 2012.

However, the search ended yesterday with the discovery of the body.

“I can confirm that the body of a young man was pulled out of the river by divers,” Polish prosecutor Len Bojarski told Reuters.

“At the moment, we suspect that it is the missing Irish fan. There is a chance that the family will arrive in Poland later... and we will ask them to identify the body. Then we’ll know for sure.”

It emerged in Polish media last night that the mayor of Bydgoszcz, Rafal Bruski, had made an appeal for solidarity with the family of James Nolan and fans of Euro 2012.

“When it will be formally confirmed what is so difficult to reconcile for all of us, I will immediately apply to the president of Uefa, Michel Platini, with a request to commemorate James Nolan with minute of silence before the Euro 2012 quarter-final games,” he said. Inhabitants of Bydgoszcz were also encouraged to mark the tragic death by hanging Irish flags across the city.

“Let us pay tribute to the best supporters of the tournament and let it be a day of solidarity with those whom that most unnecessary death touched the most,” the mayor said. “I address this appeal not only to the inhabitants of Bydgoszcz, but to all Poles.”