Family devastated at Irish climber’s tragic death

The family of a climber killed in an avalanche in Italy have spoken of their devastation at the death of their youngest son.

Shay Casey, aged 40, was climbing with friends in Aosta, in the Italian Alps, when he was caught in an avalanche last Thursday.

The Casey family said in a statement yesterday: “Tragically Shay suffered serious injuries and was killed by the force of the snowslide.”

They described him as “an avid and experienced outdoor sportsman”.

Cork woman Orla Hurley, married to an experienced climber and living in northern Italy, said recent weather in the area has created unfavourable conditions for climbers.

“The weather has been very bad, unseasonably bad, for the last month,” said Ms Hurley.

She said July was high season for climbers and conditions were normally very good.

Mr Casey, a chartered surveyor, originally from Rochestown but living in London for the last number of years, is understood to have been with a group of 11 who were climbing near the Swiss-Italian border when the avalanche happened.

His body was recovered by mountain rescue officials and transferred to a local hospital.

Members of the Casey family, one of Cork’s oldest and best-known furniture retailers, have travelled to Italy to assist with the repatriation of the body.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is providing consular assistance.

Casey’s Furniture store on St Oliver Plunkett St is expected to open for business today, and funeral arrangements have yet to be announced. Mr Casey, who attended Clongowes Wood College in Co Kildare, University College Cork, and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, had worked as director of strategy and business development at Birmingham Mailbox — an up-market shopping and office development in Birmingham city centre — up to March of this year.

It is understood he had taken some time out following his 40th birthday.

He previously worked as director of new business at GE Capital Real Estate and, prior to that, as asset manager with the same company.

Mr Casey is survived by his parents, Jim and Joan Casey of Casey’s Furniture, brothers Jack, Peter, and David and sisters Gina and Darragh.

Mr Casey’s death is the fourth climbing death this week involving Irish men.

Colm Ennis, aged 37, from Waterford, and Peter Britton, aged 55, from south Tipperary, died after a fall on Mont Blanc in France last Sunday. Mr Ennis was a human resources manager with Amazon in Cork.

Last Saturday, Francis McKeon, aged 56, a civil servant from Co Cavan, had been climbing the Twelve Bens mountain range in Muckanagh, Co Galway, when he died in a fall.