Two farmers die carrying out roof repairs after wild storms

TWO farmers have been killed in separate accidents while repairing roofs that were damaged by Storm Ophelia.

In Kilmacanogue, Co. Wicklow, farmer John Donnelly, in his 70s, fell from a ladder while carrying out repairs to guttering on a roof on Saturday afternoon.

He suffered serious head injuries in the fall and died at the scene.

Councillor Christopher Fox, a neighbour, said Mr Donnelly was heavily involved in the local community and will be deeply missed, and offered his condolences to his wife Mary and daughters Fiona and Orla.

He said: ‘He was the type of man who was involved in everything in the community, a great, great community man and an absolute gentleman.

‘His loss will be greatly felt by his family and all the wider community.’

In Co. Cork a man in his 50s was fixing the roof of a shed on a farm at Kilgarriff, near Clonakilty, when it is believed he fell from the teleporter he was using to carry out the DIY.

The farmer, thought to be a father, died at around 1pm yesterday and his body was taken to Cork University Hospital where a postmortem will be carried out.

Gardaí and the Health and Safety Authority have started investigations into the two deaths. Meanwhile, the ESB said yesterday afternoon that it was continuing to work to return power to almost 6,000 customers.

The majority of the power outages were due to Hurricane Ophelia but the ESB said some cases had been caused by the milder Storm Brian on Saturday.

Calmer weather now lies ahead following the recent spells of stormy bad weather.

Met Éireann forecaster John Eagleton said last night: ‘It will be a couple of mild days on Monday and Tuesday, temperatures hitting 16C or 17C.

‘There will be some rain in the next couple of days, but then it will be drier much later in the week.’