A jury has returned an open verdict into the sudden death of a 59-year-old father of two who died from a brain injury after getting a lift home from friends and neighbours following a night celebrating St Patrick’s Day in west Clare.
Gerard “Jack” Tubridy from Clohanmore, Cree, near Kilrush in Co Clare died at Cork University Hospital on March 20th, 2017 after never regaining consciousness following a fall at Clohanmore at the end of a night’s socialising in Walsh’s pub in the village.
On Thursday at Cork City Coroner’s Court, Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster told the jury and coroner, Philip Comyn that Mr Tubridy died from brain swelling and contusion with traumatic bleeding in the brain as well a diffuse axonal injury (a type of brain injury) and a lack of oxygen to the brain due to blunt force trauma.
But she said that interpreting Mr Tubridy’s injuries was complex and his injuries, including a fracture at the back of skull, were not compatible with just a simple fall but rather suggested that he had also been the victim of some accelerated impact which would explain injuries around his left eye.
The inquest heard that Mr Tubridy had met his cousin, Noel Kelly and Mr Kelly’s friends Martin Crowley, his wife Angela Crowley and Mr Crowley’s sister, Theresa Scanlon in Walsh pub and a blood analysis showed he had an alcohol concentration of 211mgs, equivalent to six or seven pints.
He had gone out the back of the pub and had fallen asleep on a bench in the smoking area when Mr Crowley and Mr Kelly woke him up to offer him a lift home at around 2.30am on March 18th when Mr Crowley’s son, Fergal arrived in the village to drive them all home.
Fergal Crowley told the inquest that Mr Tubridy was sitting next to Mr Kelly at the rear passenger’s side and he (Mr Turbridy) shouted to him to stop near his mother’s house as he wanted to get out there even though it was a terrible night with a howling gale and lashing rain.
He said he saw Mr Tubridy get out and close the door only to open it again and throw a punch which connected with Mr Kelly’s face and they then both grabbed each other’s clothing around the chest area before Mr Kelly got out of the car and then got back in and said “Go on, he’ll be okay”.
Earlier Martin Crowley told how he got out of the car after he heard the door open a second time and he found Mr Tubridy lying on the road behind the car and when he looked at him, he saw he was unconscious and was bleeding from his right ear and around his left eye so they rang the ambulance.
Martin Crowley told the inquest he didn’t know why he had told ambulance control when he made the 999 call that Mr Tubridy had got “a box” as he never saw anyone hit him and there wasn’t a cross word between Mr Kelly and Mr Tubridy in the car.
Mr Kelly said that Mr Tubridy wanted to get out at the entrance to his mother’s house rather than his own home and he told him that he should stay in the car but Mr Tubridy got out and closed the door on him so he told him that “he had enough messing done tonight”.
“I can swear no one touched Jack Tubridy that night – we were friends, me and Jack,” said Mr Kelly, who told gardaí that he had the slightest of scrapes on his nose and someone said he had blood on his nose but he didn’t know how it got there and there was no sign of it there when he got home later.
Angela Crowley told the inquest that “nothing sinister or bad happened to Jack Tubridy in our company that night” and while Mr Tubridy and Mr Kelly would often engage in “ a bit of messing, there was no fighting or no big scuffle that night that she had seen.”
Det Sgt Padraig Frawley said that gardaí had fully investigated Mr Tubridy’s death following Dr Bolster’s post mortem which showed his injuries were not consistent with a simple fall and they had sent a file to the DPP but the DPP had directed that there be no prosecution over Mr Tubridy’s death.
