Gardaí investigate drowning in Laois canal

Gardaí are continuing their investigation into how a woman in her 30s fell into a canal and drowned in Co Laois on Saturday night.

The dead woman has been named locally as Yvonne O’Shea, with an address in Crumlin, Dublin. The tragedy happened at the Grand Canal near the small village of Vickerstown in Laois shortly after 7pm on Saturday.

It is understood the woman and her partner, George Lawlor, from Athy, Kildare, along with four young boys were in a car which ran out of petrol. Ms O’Shea was trying to push the car when she fell into the freezing water of the canal.

Her partner made a number of attempts to rescue her from the water but got into difficulty. Gardaí were called and they managed to pull Mr Lawlor from the water and later recovered the body of Ms O’Shea.

Detectives are due to question Mr Lawlor and the couple’s four children in an attempt to find out what went wrong.

Mr Lawlor worked as a taxi driver in Athy up to a year ago.

Gardaí say they would particularly like the driver of a dark-coloured, SUV-type vehicle, who stopped and gave assistance at the scene of the incident, to contact them at Portlaoise garda station on [phone].

Vickerstown resident Pat Coleman, who came on the scene, said the children told him their parents’ Ford Fiesta car had run out of petrol and they were attempting to push the car off the road when their mother stumbled and fell into the canal.

The shocked children are now being looked after by relatives.

Gardaí Niall Bambrick and Tony Geoghegan from Athy dived into the freezing canal and pulled Mr Lawlor to safety.

Ms O’Shea’s body was taken to the Midlands Regional Hospital at Portlaoise where a post-mortem was carried out by deputy state pathologist Michael Curtis.

Article courtesy of the Evening Echo newspaper.