AN IRISHMAN has died in hospital in the Netherlands as a result of injuries he sustained in an altercation earlier this week.
Niall Coyle (33) from Four Roads in Co Roscommon was working as an electrician in the port city of Rotterdam.
He sustained injuries in an incident on Monday night outside a bar in the town of Dordrecht, about 15km southeast of Rotterdam. He was taken to hospital in Rotterdam, where he was said to be in a critical condition with serious head injuries. He died yesterday.
Mr Coyle’s mother, brother and sister travelled to Rotterdam to be at his bedside. His father and six other siblings remained in Ireland.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said consular assistance was being provided to the Coyle family through the Irish Embassy in The Hague. A number of Mr Coyle’s neighbours in the Four Roads community yesterday expressed heartbreak and devastation about the news of his death.
Parish priest Fr Francis Beirne said Mr Coyle, who at 6ft 4in, was a gentle giant. His family had been expecting to return to Co Roscommon tomorrow.
Fr Beirne said a prayer service was held in the local church on Wednesday night as news spread of Mr Coyle’s condition. He said the church was packed.
“The heartbreak is palpable in this south Roscommon parish because of this unprovoked attack on a very innocent inoffensive young man,” he said.
Local councillor Martin Connaughton (Fianna Fáil) described Mr Coyle as “a big, strong inoffensive man with never an ounce of bother in him”.
He said that words could not describe how decent the Coyle family were.