Inquest hears how day of fun turned to tragedy

A day of innocent fun among friends on a beach turned to tragedy and the death of a 19-year-old Co Cork student, an inquest heard yesterday.

Niamh McCarthy, of Ballygrissane, Minane Bridge, a biological and chemical science student at UCC, died when a sand dune collapsed on her at an area known as the Back Beach, near Castlegregory, Co Kerry.

She had been on a post-exam break with a group of nine friends who, in the words of coroner Helen Lucey, had been engaged in “innocent old-fashioned fun” and tried desperately to rescue her after she became covered by sand.

They had rented a house for three days, the inquest in Tralee was told. On May 29, 2012, they spent the morning digging a hole with their hands about halfway up a sand dune.

Later, they had been lowering each other into the hole which, according to witnesses, was between 9ft and 11ft deep at the back, and around 6ft or 7 ft at the front, and taking pictures of each other.

Niamh was the last to go into the hole and it collapsed on her in a minute, or two. The friends began digging to get her out and some of them ran for help. Locals arrived with shovels and, after fifteen to twenty minutes, they got her out of the hole.

Niamh was pronounced dead the next day at Kerry General Hospital, where she had been taken by ambulance.

A garda who examined the scene found it was 32ft from the beach floor to where the hole had been dug in a sand dune 55ft high over the beach. The hole measured 8ft wide and 5ft four deep, even though it was obvious sand had filled into it.

Dr Margot Bolster, assistant state pathologist, who conducted an autopsy, concluded death was due to brain damage due to lack of oxygen due to asphyxia due to being buried in the sand.

A verdict in accordance with the medical evidence was returned and the coroner suggested that the phrase, “accidentally buried in the sand”, be added.

Ms Lucey said it had been an extremely difficult inquest, she remarked, and “you could hear a pin drop’’ while evidence was being given.

Ms Lucey said one of the things that struck her watching Niamh McCarthy’s friends was that they were extremely decent, nice young people and she had no doubt Niamh was exactly the same.