Divers travelled hundreds of miles to recover the body of a young South Armagh man who died in a fall from the Cliffs of Moher in Co Clare, prompting his father to question why his son’s remains lay on rocks for two days.
Lochlann Murray (17), an apprentice electrician from Silverbridge, was reported missing on July 5 after his car was found close to the cliffs and the body located by a Civil Defence drone.
His father, Kieran Murray, said the family was told the Coast Guard in the area of Co Clare could not recover the body and that it would take several days for a Garda sub-aqua team to arrive to carry out the operation.
Members of the Co Monaghan-based Rockcorry Divers and North Coast Search and Recovery team travelled 180 miles from their home base to Clare after they were contacted by the Murray family.
Despite being unfamiliar with the treacherous terrain, they managed to successfully retrieve the body for the family.
Mr Murray said he, another member of his family and friends travelled to the area after being told the drone was deployed to search for his son.
They were told by Doolin Coast Guard, which has not been fully operational since 2021 following disagreements within the unit over management structures, could not help with the recovery and that the Garda unit would not be available as members were on another operation.
Mr Murray told the Sunday Independent: “My niece then got on the phone, rang around local groups and luckily the divers from Rockcorry responded.”
Frank McDermott, chair of the Monaghan-based diving group, said he had never come across a situation where a “family was left pleading for help”.
Mr Murray and friends descended to a ledge before helping haul the body, then in a bag, over boulders in the face of being hit by waves and in danger from falling rocks.
“It was just harrowing - at one point I thought we were all going to lose our lives,” Mr Murray said.
In a statement, the Department of Transport in Dublin, speaking on behalf of the Coast Guard, said the Doolin unit carried out boat and drone operations and located the body but that it was assessed a dive team was needed.
Options for deployment were being considered by the Garda when the body was recovered, the department said.
The Irish Coast Guard Volunteers’ Representative Association, said the Doolin unit, as it was prior to November 2021, was “exceptional and should never have been taken out of service”.
