Emergency services have recovered the body of a man who got into difficulty while swimming in the river Lee near St Mary’s Church in Cork city centre on Wednesday evening.
The man, who was in his mid-30s and from Cork’s northside, entered the north channel of the river Lee from Pope’s Quay with a friend at around 6.45pm to try to swim to Kyrl’s Quay.
The first man successfully made it across the channel, and exited at steps at Kyrl’s Quay on the southern side of the channel, which is about 50 metres wide at that point.
The second man got into difficulty as he neared the quay wall and disappeared beneath the surface of the water, which was rising towards high tide at 8.20pm.
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The second man raised the alarm, and members of Cork City Fire Service were quickly on the scene, joined by the Crosshaven RNLI.
Irish Coast Guard Marine Rescue Centre at Valentia Island co-ordinated the rescue operation, and tasked the Irish Coast Guard Sikorski helicopter from Waterford, Rescue 117, to assist.
Rescue 117 carried out several sweeps of the north channel of the Lee down past the Port of Cork building where it merges with the south channel of the Lee before entering Cork Harbour.
The Irish Coast Guard, RNLI and Cork Fire Services were also assisted by members of the voluntary Cork City Missing Persons Search Group, who provided a number of divers.
Two divers from the group, using a sonar scanner, recovered the body of the swimmer not far from where he had gone underwater. The man was pronounced dead at the scene by a local doctor.
His body was removed to Cork University Hospital morgue for a postmortem, which will form part of the file that gardaí will prepare for an inquest at Cork City Coroner’s Court.
The deceased man’s friend was removed by ambulance from the scene to the Mercy University Hospital, where he was kept overnight for observation.
The dead man and his friend were among several people who went swimming in the Lee off Pope’s Quay on Wednesday evening as temperatures exceeded 20 degrees in Cork.
