Woman died after first time taking cocaine and ecstasy that boyfriend gave her, inquest told

Glen Burke (pictured), the boyfriend of Ailbhe Smith, told the inquest: “If I could switch places with Ailbhe, I would.” Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

A young Wicklow woman suffered a fatal bleed in her brain after the first time she ever took cocaine and ecstasy, an inquest has heard.

A sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard evidence that Ailbhe Smith had been given the drugs by her new boyfriend, Glen Burke, in his house in Swords in the early hours of September 30, 2020. Ms Smith (26) of Quill Road, Kilmacanogue, Co. Wicklow, died the following day at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin where the former DCU student had been brought by ambulance after suffering seizures in Mr Burke’s home.