Man jumped from balcony after taking mushrooms, inquest told

A man jumped from a balcony to his death after becoming severely agitated after consuming magic mushrooms, an inquest heard today.

Close friends of Colm Hodkinson said they grew frantic with worry as he became severely unwell after taking two to three of the hallucinogenic mushrooms for the first time.

Shane O’Reilly, an old school friend of the 33-year-old, said they group were considering calling an ambulance to his apartment at The Anchorage, Clarence Street in Dublin’s Dun Laoghaire when the tragedy occurred on October 30, 2005.

The inquest heard Johnnie Murtagh, another friend, saw Mr Hodkinson jump from a communal balcony after following him up a flight of stairs from his apartment.

“There was absolute chaos then,” a distraught Mr O’Reilly said.

The Dublin County Coroner’s Court heard he ran down the stairs, placed a blanket on him and lay there with him until the ambulance arrived.

Another friend said: “The whole incident was like a living nightmare.”

Mr O’Reilly said the 33-year-old had told him earlier that week that he was going to buy some magic mushrooms before having friends over to the apartment he had recently moved into with his girlfriend, Rachel Priest.

He said they had smoked a number of cannabis joints, and had a small number of beers as around eight of his friends gathered together playing card games and Trivial Pursuit.

Another friend told the inquest Mr Hodkinson had bought around six punnets of the mushrooms for €90 from the Hemp Store on Dublin’s Capel Street.

Mr O’Reilly said four people, including Mr Hodkinson, were eating them with crisps to dilute the taste.

“They had less than two boxes between them,” he said, adding Mr Hodkinson had no more than three mushrooms.

His other friend said Mr Hodkinson had bought them at the Hemp Store on Capel Street and had never taken them before.

He said the deceased had said the people working in the shop had told him the way to consume them.

He said: “It was a very quiet get-together, we were talking and sipping drinks it wasn’t a wild party by any stretch.”

After Mr Hodkinson became agitated shortly after taking them, his friends said they brought him up to the balcony for air and then brought him back down.

“Colm was becoming ever more unwell and distressed,” he said, adding they were in a panicked state over Colm’s condition. “Everyone was very concerned we were contemplating ringing ambulances.”

He said: “The whole incident was like a living nightmare.”

He said he was unaware magic mushrooms were not supposed to be taken with alcohol or other narcotics.

His friends described him as a happy-go-lucky man and always smiling, his father, Eoin, had just transferred his successful dry cleaning business to him and he had moved in with his girlfriend.

“He was full of plans for the future,” Mr O’Reilly said.

The other friend said: “I have no doubt it was the mushrooms that had a catastrophic effect on him.”

* This article was edited on Oct 7, 2021.