Calls to close off ‘short cut’ where father and son died

Local representatives have called for a meeting between Dublin City Council and Irish Rail to finally close off a ‘short cut’ at which a father and son died at the weekend.

A postmortem was conducted yesterday on the bodies of Sean ‘Curley’ Sweeney, 36, and his three-year-old son Tyler Joyce, who died in what gardaí are calling a tragic accident in the Ashtown area of the capital.

Their bodies were discovered by a passerby near the railway line at Ashington Green on Sunday afternoon at around 3pm. Gardaí believe they may have first fallen into the ditch, possibly as early as the previous evening.

One possibility being explored by gardaí is that Mr Sweeney, who lived in the area, may have been crossing with his son to visit his parents, who live in the Ashington estate in Ashtown.

It is understood Tyler, who lived with his mother, was spending the weekend with his father. Both live in the Navan Road/Finglas locality.

It also emerged yesterday that while local youngsters are understood to use the same crossing over the stream to cross the railway line and canal, fencing at the site has regularly been damaged. Irish Rail said it had been repaired as recently as March 12.

Local Labour Party Cllr Brendan Carr said even before the tragedy there had been calls for a permanent solution to be found and that gardaí were also keen to have the fencing permanently repaired. “We have been on to the council a number of times to try to get them to do something more permanent,” Mr Carr said.

Irish Rail has been conducting repairs on the railing, but Mr Carr said Irish Rail and the council needed to come to an arrangement whereby the area was sealed off.

“We are looking for a meeting between the council and Iarnród Éireann on this,” he said.