A night out to celebrate a friend's birthday turned to tragedy when a young woman died suddenly after consuming a powder form of the drug MDMA, more commonly known as ecstasy.
Maeve Quinn (30), Violet Hill Road, Glasnevin, died on the evening of December 23rd, 2006 after taking two "dabs" of MDMA at a friend's house, more than 15 hours after the celebrations began in a city centre pub, Dublin City Coroner's Court was told.
The mother-of-one began her night out at Bia Bar shortly after 10pm on December 22nd, the inquest was told. After closing time Ms Quinn and another friend, Jennifer Butterly, went with David Mullen to his house on Sullivan Street to continue the party.
The three stayed up drinking whiskey with Mr Mullen's flatmate, John Carroll, and the session continued into the following day, with Mr Carroll making a few trips to the shop to purchase wine and vodka.
Later that evening they took some MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine), after which Ms Quinn, who was a clerical worker at the Mater hospital, collapsed suddenly.
A post mortem revealed Ms Quinn died suddenly from MDMA toxicity. She had a very high level of Ecstasy in her system at the time of her death, with 12.0 micrograms per millilitre of the drug in her blood.
One study of nine adults who died of MDMA toxicity showed that the toxic amounts that caused their deaths ranged from 0.6 micrograms per millilitre to 3.7 micrograms per millilitre, the Dublin city coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, told the court.
Ms Quinn had a low level of alcohol in her blood.
Mr Mullen told the court that he bought the MDMA from a drug dealer in the city centre club, Rí Rá on the night of the 22nd and that Ms Quinn had offered him a "pep pill", what he believed to be a herbal ecstasy tablet, before he left for the club, which he accepted.
Ms Butterly told the court she also believed Ms Quinn was taking herbal ecstasy on the night, as she was herself. At approximately 6pm on December 23rd, Mr Mullen brought out the bag of MDMA and the four took "dabs" of the drug.
Ms Quinn took a second "dab" approximately 15 minutes after the first.
"As it was taking effect, I noticed Maeve's head dropping forward. Jennifer then noticed something seriously was wrong with Maeve and put a glass of water on Maeve's face, but she didn't react," Mr Mullen said.
The emergency services were contacted immediately at 7.20pm and she was rushed to the Mater hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 8pm.
The coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.