Man took ‘lethal’ level of ecstasy at Phoenix Park gig

Friends of a man who died after taking ecstasy while attending a concert at the Phoenix Park told an inquest that he was “rambling” and talking to people who were not there.

Shane Brophy, from the Swan, Crettyard in Co Laois, died at Connolly Hospital in Dublin on Jul 8 last year. He had been seen taking ecstasy at the Swedish House Mafia gig in Phoenix Park just hours before.

Dublin Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Brophy, who had recently returned from the US, attended the gig with a number of friends.

Yvonne Byrne told the court that she saw Mr Brophy taking cocaine as the group walked down the quays towards the concert. He had been given the cocaine the previous night by Mr Byrne’s then-boyfriend Anthony Kirwan, she said, but lost it before arriving at the Phoenix Park.

Ms Byrne also saw him buying “pills” at the concert from someone she did not recognise. When she last saw him he seemed to have taken a lot of them. “He was in a ball,” she said.

Mr Brophy was staying at his friend James McHugh’s Lucan apartment that night. Mr McHugh’s brother Michael said he did not see Mr Brophy taking drugs at the concert but as they were heading home, he could see that he “wasn’t in a great way”. As they waited for a bus, he turned around and saw the man lying on the ground with his trousers around his ankles.

“He was sweating and shaking and his jaw was rattling. He was rolling around on the ground and was talking to himself. He was talking to people that were not there,” he said.

The McHugh brothers got Mr Brophy dressed and flagged down a taxi to take them to the apartment in Lucan. James McHugh said that once there, Mr Brophy “wasn’t in good shape” and was “rambling and talking to people that weren’t there”. He gave him water but became worried when he saw him sweating, and called an ambulance.

Mr Brophy was taken to Connolly Hospital where he died later that morning.

Pathologist Dr Muna Sabah said the toxicology report showed a “lethal” level of ecstasy in his system. Cocaine was also present. She gave the cause of death as drug toxicity involving “ecstasy and possibly cocaine”.

Detective Garda Patrick Traynor said Mr Brophy purchased pills and more cocaine at the concert from an individual he has been unable to identify.

A file was forwarded to the DPP who indicated no prosecutions would follow. The inquest was adjourned to Dec 9 to hear from doctors who treated Mr Brophy at Connolly Hospital.

This is the second drug-related death following the Swedish House Mafia gig to come before the Dublin coroner this year. In June, a verdict of death by misadventure was returned at the inquest into the death of Lee Scanlon, aged 20, from Clonsilla, Dublin 15, who died from ecstasy toxicity.