‘We realised we couldn’t save both our friends from dying in the lake’
Heartbreaking testimony in drowned teens’ inquest
FRIENDS of two boys who drowned together in a disused quarry lake have told of the devastating moment when ‘we realised we couldn’t save them both’.
The deaths of Ennis rugby players Jack Kenneally and Shay Moloney, both aged 15, were accidental, an inquest jury ruled yesterday.
The two boys – who had dreamed of playing rugby for their beloved Munster – lost their lives on May 31 last year.
Heartbreaking depositions were read into the record from three of the boys’ friends, who had been swimming at the quarry in Knockanean, outside Ennis, Co. Clare, when tragedy struck.
One of the boys, aged 16, told gardaí: ‘I was trying to keep Shay up, keep him calm for two minutes. My arms got too tired, and I couldn’t hold him any more.’
Another boy, aged 15, told gardaí he had led the party of five to a rocky island on the lake where they had planned to perform jumps into the water. He said that as the rest of the party approached the island, he observed Jack ‘sort of panicky swimming’. ‘He looked tired,’ the boy said.
Another boy ‘was trying to hold up Jack’, he said. As both of them tried to help Jack, they saw that Shay was struggling in the water.
‘That’s when we realised we couldn’t save them both,’ the boy said. ‘I rang 999, I told them the two lads were going under the water. 999 rang me back, as [the ambulance] went to [another] quarry, and they asked me where was I.’
He said paramedics eventually tracked his location after he sent the ambulance service the GPS location of his mobile phone. Dean Coughlan, 19, of Station Roads, Ennis, who was passing at the time, told gardaí he rushed to the lake after hearing the boys ‘screaming’. He told gardaí that as he made his way towards the water, he could see one of the boys ‘trying to keep Shay up’.
‘I was close when I saw them go down... only [one] came back up... he was distraught,’ he added.
Ennis firefighters, who had been attending to another call, arrived at the scene at 3.30pm, nine minutes after receiving the alert.
Firefighters were in the water at 3.47pm. Despite being able to see
‘I couldn’t hold him anymore’ ‘Their hearts were not beating’
Jack and Shay submerged in the lake, they could not reach them.
‘We have buoyancy aids to keep us on the surface. We have no subsurface capabilities in the fire service,’ explained Steve Hayes, the most senior member of Ennis Fire Service at the scene on the day. He said the boys’ bodies were ‘just down too deep’.
David Woods, a witness who came on the scene, said he entered the water to try to help retrieve the boys’ bodies. ‘I could see them as clear as day, but I couldn’t reach them,’ Mr Woods told gardaí.
Michael O’Rourke, a diver attached to Ennis Sub Aqua Club, raced to the scene after seeing the Coast Guard rescue helicopter in the area. Despite encountering poor visibility underwater at the time of his dive, he eventually retrieved the two boys shortly before 4.30pm.
Paramedics performed CPR on Jack and Shay for over 30 minutes at the scene before both were airlifted to hospital.
The two boys showed no signs of life as they departed for University Hospital Limerick.
Alan West, a senior advanced paramedic who responded to the incident, told gardaí: ‘They were not breathing, and their hearts were not beating.’
Limerick Coroner Dr John McNamara returned verdicts of accidental death due to drowning. On foot of a suggestion from Seán Kenneally, father of Jack, Dr McNamara said he would make a recommendation that the owners of the quarry erect life buoys at the site.