A coroner has made an appeal to landowners to "immediately report" the location of any strychnine on their properties, after a 78-year-old man was found to have died of the rare and illegal poison.
Strychnine was illegal for many years and was "extremely dangerous", the coroner, Terence Casey, said. He urged anyone who knew the location of strychnine on a farm to immediately report it and to have it destroyed.
The jury at the inquest in Killarney returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence that John Kelleher, of Ballinagree, Macroom, Co Cork had died of strychnine poisoning, in a doctor's surgery in Rathmore, Co Kerry some hours after taking ill on January 17th, 2003.
The inquest was not told how or where he had ingested the poison. A witness, Joe Sheehan, said Mr Kelleher had pulled up behind him at an old creamery on the Killarney side of Rathmore. He had been on his way to his daughter, outside Barraduff, he told Mr Sheehan, but he was feeling unwell and asked him to ring his son-in-law.
Dr Tony McDonnell, a GP in Rathmore was called. Mr Kelleher was lucid and complaining of stiffness and pain in his legs. Dr McDonnell had called for an ambulance but he was told by the call centre in Tralee that none was available in either Killarney, Tralee or Millstreet, and would not be until 9pm that night.
At 5.35pm, he pronounced him dead.