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.