Irishman dies in freak hotel accident

An Irish tourist has died in hospital three weeks after he suffered serious head injuries in a freak accident at a hotel in South Africa.

58-year-old Colm Foley, a businessman from Co Kerry, tripped and impaled himself on an ice bucket stand in the hotel in Cape Town on March 20.

The father-of-four struck the stand face first and the spike went 12 centimetres into his skull through his eye socket.

Doctors performed an eight-hour operation to try to save him, but he died three weeks after the accident.

The father-of-four was staying at the Erinvale Estate Hotel in Somerset West.

He finished his dinner with friends and then he got up to leave. Mr Foley tripped on his way out and hit his head on the ice bucket stand, hotel night manager Colin Pistorius said.

Mr Pistorius said Mr Foley’s wife and sister-in-law flew over to South Africa. Mr Foley was a regular guest at the hotel and a friend of the owner, another Irishman, Xavier McAuliffe.

He was a prominent businessman in his home of Kerry and ran an accountancy practice in Tralee as well as a bar and guesthouse in Killarney.

Mr Foley’s sister refused to comment. Speaking from the family bar and guesthouse, Charlie’s, she said Mr Foley’s wife was the only person who should comment and that she was not available.

Mr Foley's body is due to be flown home this week.