Body discovered off west coast believed to be missing Cork woman

The body, which was discovered on Saturday morning off Inisheer has been taken to University Hospital in Galway for identification and post mortem

The scene at Silverstrand beach where the search is going on for a woman missing in Galway Bay. Picture: Ray Ryan

Rescue workers searching for two women missing off the west coast have discovered a body in the water.

The body, which was discovered on Saturday morning off Inisheer, the smallest of the three Aran Islands, has been taken to University Hospital in Galway for identification and post mortem.

It is believed to be the body of a 45-year-old woman missing from Cork since yesterday week whose car was located on Tuesday in west Clare coastal village Liscannor.

Search parties looking for the woman along the Clare coast have been stood down since the discovery of the woman’s body.

Meanwhile, over 500 volunteers are continuing to search throughout Saturday with multi-agency crews for Máire Ní Fhátharta from Spiddal.

The 32-year-old went missing after going for a swim at Silverstrand near Barna in Galway on Tuesday morning.

The body of another swimmer, 74-year old songwriter Johnny Duhan, was found in the water at Rusheen Bay a few hours after he was reported missing after going for his daily swim. He was laid to rest in Killaan Cemetery in east Co Galway on Friday.

There was dense fog in the area at the time and gardaí believe this may have been a factor in the double tragedy on Tuesday morning.

Gardaí, with the assistance of the Irish Coast Guard, RNLI, Civil Defence and a number of local search and rescue crews, have been searching each day since then.

They resumed the full scale search at first light this Saturday morning, with hundreds of volunteers combing a 45km stretch of coastline from Renville near Oranmore on the east of Galway city to Inverin in Connemara.

Dozens of boats along with paddleboards and kayaks have also been involved in the search.