Concern has been raised over the lack of safety barriers at the end of a steep descent onto the towpath on the Royal Canal at Ballybough in Dublin following the drowning of a young man last year.
Coroner Aisling Gannon said she would contact both Dublin City Council and Waterways Ireland about the concerns raised at an inquest into the death of Andrés Navarro by the victim’s husband.
Mr Navarro (25), a Mexican national with an address at Clonliffe Road, Ballybough, drowned after falling into the canal from the towpath near the bridge at Ballybough in the early hours of August 21st, 2022.
The inquest at Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard the victim’s husband, Raymond McSweeney – whom he had married just six months earlier – became aware of his partner’s death while on holiday in Spain.
Mr McSweeney said he had become worried that something was wrong as he had been unable to contact Mr Navarro by phone, which was unusual as he was always using it to check social media.
The witness said he had checked the news at around 10pm that evening and read that someone had been found in the canal.
Mr McSweeney said he contacted gardaí at Mountjoy Garda station and was regretfully informed that Mr Navarro was the victim after he had provided a detailed description of his husband.
Results of the post-mortem examination showed Mr Navarro had consumed over six times the legal drink-driving limit for alcohol.
In reply to questions from Ms Gannon, Mr McSweeney said they would drink wine and beer but “not a lot”.
He said his husband had been in terrific form when he had last seen him the previous month before he left for Spain, and they had spoken by phone the day before he died. He also confirmed that Mr Navarro had no physical or mental health issues.
Safety barriers
Mr McSweeney pointed out that the path leading down to the canal from the bridge at Ballybough, where Mr Navarro had fallen into the water, was quite steep and had no safety barriers.
“It’s quite open and there are no safety railings. It is used by a lot of people. You would need good balance not to descend into the canal,” Mr McSweeney said.
Sergeant Elaine Murtagh, the lead investigator into Mr Navarro’s death, also agreed that the path was “quite steep”. “It is quite a sharp drop down,” she said.
She told the coroner that CCTV footage from before the incident had shown Mr Navarro being refused entry to the Boilerhouse gay sauna club in Temple Bar when he had appeared “quite intoxicated”.
Sgt Murtagh said he was also seen swaying heavily from side to side outside a fast food outlet.
He was next seen on a Garda CCTV camera going down the ramp to the towpath at Ballybough at around 4.37am, where he “seemed to head for the water without slowing down” at the location where his body was later found.
Sgt Murtagh said she was satisfied there was nothing suspicious in relation to Mr Navarro’s death as there was nobody else in the vicinity at the time based on the CCTV footage.
Misadventure
A friend of the deceased, Derek Kiernan, said he was also concerned when an app which showed Mr Navarro was at the Boilerhouse had not been updated since 4am, which was unusual as he was “always on social media”.
Although the canal was only about two metres deep, the inquest heard Mr Navarro was unable to swim.
The coroner said the results of a post-mortem confirmed that he had died from drowning.
While his level of alcohol was “not independently fatal”, Ms Gannon said it would have affected his ability to get out of the water.
The inquest heard his body was discovered around 12pm in the canal by a group of foreign students who alerted a local woman who called the emergency services.
Mr Navarro, who came to Ireland in 2018, had studied digital marketing in Dublin and was due to begin a course in European languages at University College Cork last September.
Returning a verdict of death by misadventure, Ms Gannon offered her condolences to Mr Navarro’s husband and friends as well as his mother, Margarita, who joined the inquest by video link from Mexico.
The coroner said she would ask the local authority and Waterways Ireland to consider the suggestion about safety barriers given the tragic event.
