Baltimore: Barry Davis Ryan recovered on ‘practically the last dive’
Voluntary organisation, the West Cork Underwater Search and Rescue (WCUSR), played a pivotal role in co-ordinating the searches.
Well-known diver John Kearney had a hands-on role offshore, while Eamon Barry took care of operations onshore.
Mr Barry said the discovery yesterday brought huge relief, not only to the heartbroken families, but to the divers and the local community.
“I’m just very happy for the family, the mother [Ann Davis] was here last night and the one thing she said she wanted was closure,” Mr Barry said yesterday.
“We got that today and there is a massive group of people to thank for that. It wouldn’t have happened without the effort and support of all the people that came down here over the past two days. It was amazing, it’s a great feeling to be part of it.”
After several days of disappointment, Mr Kearney, meanwhile, had made a heartfelt appeal last weekend to experienced divers from all over the country. The diving community from a large number of centres answered the call.
In the search operation, WCUSR had utilised charts and shot lines along the sea bed to ensure a thorough search of the Eastern Hole bay area where the triple drownings occurred on Tuesday week last.
Co-ordinators were confident the body would be located in the Eastern Hole area, on the advice of local experts and fishermen.
John Wolfe, chairman of Mallow Search and Rescue, was among those in the last three dive teams in the water when the student’s body was located.
“It would be very disappointing to have gone home without a result,” he said. “It’s a relief because it was practically the last dive.
“There were only two or three teams left out there diving. We were finishing up then because the weather was turning and we were looking at next Tuesday after that.
“It would have been devastating for the family to see everyone clearing off out of here today with nothing found, so it’s great to have found him,” he said.
The 20-year-old’s body was discovered in about 12m of water, just over 200m from the shore where, along with his father Barry Ryan and girlfriend Niamh O’Connor, he had been swept into the water.
The diver who spotted the body in the murky depths was John Chambers, from the Atlantic Divers team in Cork City.
Barry’s body was on the seabed near the Eastern Hole bay in a shallow sea grave of sand and kelp.
Visibility had been between 3m and 4m with a slight surface swell.
In a pre-arranged system, Mr Chambers alerted Navy divers who recovered the body.
The body was transferred to a rib operated by Mr Kearney and the dive team handed over responsibility to gardaí at the pier.
More than 200 dives had been conducted on Thursday, alone, as 83 divers, both local and many who travelled long distances, helped in the search effort.
Warnings over deteriorating weather patterns had restricted yesterday’s diving to a mainly pre-planned morning-time operation.
Following a formal identification, the body was transferred to Cork University Hospital for a post mortem.
Local businessman Tom Bushe, who is also a member of the RNLI team in Baltimore, said the location of the discovery was “quite close” to the spot where Barry Davis Ryan had entered the water.
The depth of the water and the fact the body was partially concealed by sand and weeds may explain why it took such an intensive search effort for it to be discovered.
Mr Bushe said: “It was like looking for a needle in a haystack down there.”
The search for the 20-year-old, from nearby Lackahane, had been the focus of huge efforts locally over the past 10 days.
The breakthrough came after an emotional appeal earlier this week from Barry’s mother, Ann, for experienced divers to come and help local search teams.
Barry’s father, also Barry, was laid to rest last weekend following a funeral service in the area, while his girlfriend, Niamh, was buried in her native Glanmire last Saturday.
The efforts of search teams received praise last night, with Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney among those tweeting.
“Thank God — body has been recovered in Baltimore, my heart goes out to the family but at least now the search is over,” he wrote.
The Baltimore Lifeboat Station Facebook page also carried an update yesterday regarding the search efforts.
“We are all so relieved that a body has been found following an extensive search for Barry Davis Ryan,” it said.
“A formal identification has yet to take place. Divers recovered the body around midday and have brought him to the lifeboat station.
“We are so relieved that he can be returned to his family and offer our sincere condolences to the family and friends of all affected by this tragedy.”
Locals had carried out a candlelit vigil walk from Baltimore to the Beacon on Wednesday, led by Barry’s mother and his younger sister, Charlotte, who had raised the alarm on June 30, when Barry, Niamh, and then his father entered the water in the eastern hole area of Baltimore harbour.
Search efforts since then have involved RNLI crews from Baltimore and Toe Head/Glandore, members of the local Civil Defence, the Irish Coast Guard and Naval and Garda diving teams, as well as local fishermen and volunteers.
