A JURY yesterday returned a unanimous verdict of accidental death at the inquest into the death of well-known Kerry businessman and sports enthusiast Bill Kirby.
The body of Mr Kirby (62), Liscahane, Ardfert, was found by members of his family early on the morning of May 9th last on Rossbeigh Strand near Glenbeigh in south Kerry. An air and sea search had been put in place for the Tralee publican the previous day.
In his address to the jury of six men and one woman at Cahersiveen Coroner’s Court, before their verdict, south Kerry coroner Terence Casey warned the jury to be very careful in their deliberations and stressed there was no evidence of suicide.
There was no sign of alcohol or drugs and “no evidence of suicide” or misadventure or unlawful killing or of violence, he said. Mr Casey also said he had no control over the media, who were entitled to report on coroners’ courts.
There had been a lot of rumours surrounding the death of their father, he told the family, who had objected to the media presence and who had made outbursts at the media from the witness stand in the course of the inquest.
“It may be in your own interest that the press state that the cause of death was accidental. It may lift the cloud of suspicion which went around the county at the time. You must remember this is a court,” Mr Casey said.
Witness Marie Meade, a daughter of the deceased, said she arrived at the scene at Rossbeigh with members of the family. She was with her sisters and they decided to walk along the edge of the water. Her father had been missing since the previous day.
They walked for about 10 minutes and they saw a body lying face down on the beach about six metres from the shoreline. She recognised it as that of her father.
Garda John Twiss said he had received a report of a car on fire on the back strand on Rossbeigh on the afternoon of May 8th and the fire brigade was called to put out the fire. The car was later traced to the Kirby family in Tralee.
Richard Dando, the last person to see Mr Kirby alive, told how he was walking towards the back strand on Rossbeigh beach at 4.30pm on May 8th when he noticed smoke coming from over the sand dunes.
He saw a well-dressed grey haired man running over the sand dunes in the direction of the front strand.
He appeared to be in a distressed state and he lost sight of him. “I did not make any contact with him. I did not see him going into the water,” Mr Dando said.
A postmortem examination conducted by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster found the cause of death to be acute cardio-respiratory failure due to drowning.
There was no sign of alcohol or drugs and he had been on prescribed medication for hypertension.
The late Mr Kirby was a leading businessman in Tralee and the owner of Kirby’s Brogue Inn, Tralee and Kirby’s Lantern Hotel in Tarbert. He was also a well-known sporting figure and was prominent in GAA and racing circles in Kerry.
He was also involved in numerous charitable and community organisations and his funeral was one of the biggest ever seen in Tralee.
Supt Michael O’Donovan extended his sympathy to the Kirby family as did the coroner and the jury foreman.