A 74-year-old father of four has died following a farm accident involving a bull on his holding in West Cork over the weekend.
John Reynolds suffered fatal head injuries when he was attacked and knocked over by a Friesian bull at his dairy farm at Ballyinaloughy in Ballinhassig between Cork and Bandon at around 5.30pm on Saturday evening.
His grandchildren, who were withhim at the time, raised the alarm and the emergency services attended to Mr Reynolds at the scene.
Paramedics continued to work on Mr Reynolds as he was taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital but he was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Gardaí say that they are treating Mr Reynolds’ death as a tragic accident and have begun an investigation. A postmortem due to take on the man’s body at Cork University Hospital on Monday.
Meanwhile the Health and Safety Authority was also notified of the incident and HSA Inspectors have visited the farm as part of a separate HSA investigation into Mr Reynolds’ death.
Mr Reynolds, who is survived by his wife, Margaret and adult children, Antoinette, Kieran, Linda and Loretta as well as his 15 grandchildren, will be buried following a funeral mass in Ballinhassig on Tuesday.
While the funeral mass will be private in line with HSE guidelines on the Covid-19 pandemic, it will be streamed live on the Ballinhassig Parish Facebook page .
Mr Reynolds’ death is the second involving a farmer and livestock in Co Cork in the space of just six weeks and follows the death of a 64-year-old father of four who died after being attacked by a bull last month.
Paddy Curtin from Knockscovane in Meelin in North Cork was fatally injured when he was gored by a bull as he was feeding cattle on a property at Tullylease near Charleville in North Cork on April 2nd.
According to the Health and Safety Authority, farming remains the most dangerous workplace in Ireland in terms of overall fatal accidents with some 18 people dying in accidents on Irish farms in 2019.
According to HSA figures, 214 people died in accidents on Irish farms between 2010 and 2019 with tractors and farm vehicles accounting for 30pc of these and machinery and livestock each accounting for a further 18pc of fatalities.
