Naval divers recover body of Barry Davis
A SOLEMN silence descended over Baltimore pier as naval divers returned the body of Barry Davis Ryan to shore yesterday.
The 20-year- old student was recovered around 200m from where he was last seen alive by his sister Charlotte, when a family trip turned to tragedy.
Barry’s body was located on the seabed in 24m of water, partially covered by sand and seaweed.
A flotilla of boats brought the body to shore and a procession of around 100 divers and other volunteers formed a guard of honour as the hearse left Bull Point pier. The body was then taken to Cork University Hospital for postmortem examination.
The discovery of the body came after ten days of agony for the Davis and Ryan families, and the funerals of Barry’s father Barry Ryan Sr, 51.
Barry’s 21- year- old girlfriend, Niamh O’Connor, from Glanmire, died on June 20 after she was dragged out to sea. Barry Sr and Barry Jr jumped in to save her. Barry Jr’s body was recovered just before the search was to be called off at lunchtime yesterday due to deteriorating weather conditions.
Three dive teams were in the water when the discovery was made at 1pm.
John Chambers discovered the body, which had been clouded by sand and kelp. He was among a team of five Atlantic Divers in Cork city scouring the sea bed at Eastern Hole bay. Visibility was between three and four metres, with a slight surface swell.
‘We were going to keep going until we ran all the way into the cove,’ he said. Mr Chambers had arrived on Wednesday with a team of nine volunteer divers. They completed six dives over the past three days.
Mr Chambers said: ‘It’s a sense of closure for the family and I hope it gives them that.
‘These guys are all trained divers and it’s something they can use to help other people when they can. Emotionally, after something like this, it’s something they will go back and think over now in the next few days.’ Naval divers Tony O’Regan and Gareth Smith assisted in the recovery following a call from John Kearney of West Cork Underwater Search and Rescue.
Mr O’Regan explained: ‘We were into day ten here almost and people had begun almost to lose a bit of hope but thankfully perseverance has paid off. The local community spirit has been phenomenal here for all of us.’
Local experts and fishermen had helped the rescue teams.
Eamon Barry of WCUSR coordinated the search effort on shore from early yesterday morning, alongside John Kearney.
Following the discovery of the student’s body, he said: ‘I’m just very happy for the family, his mother was here last night and the one thing she said she wanted was closure.
‘We got that today and there is a massive group of people to thank for that.
‘It wouldn’t have happened without the effort and support of all the people that came down here over the past two days. It was amazing, it’s a great feeling to be part of it.’
Local woman Geraldine Sheehy was a among the team of volunteers who supported the various search teams at the pier. She said that the volunteers were reluctant to disperse until the search was completed.
She said: ‘I’m here since 7.30am this morning, we didn’t want to go home because of the fact we were waiting for good news which thank God we got.
‘It’s hard to talk about it, I know the family quite well. Charlotte and Arthur were in my children’s classes at school, it’s been horrendous. There’s a sense of grief but relief too, a sense of happiness that it’s all over.’
And John Wolfe, chairman of Mallow Search and Rescue, said that there was a great sense of relief. He was among the last three dive teams in the water when Barry’s body was located.
‘It would be very disappointed to have gone home without a result,’ he said. ‘It’s a relief because it was practically the last dive, there were only two or three teams left out there diving. We were finishing up then because the weather was turning and we were looking at next Tuesday after that. It would have been devastating for the family to see everyone clearing off out of here today with nothing found, so it’s great to have found him.’
‘It’s some closure for the family’