Drowning inquest hears concerns raised about lack of safety barriers on Royal Canal stretch

A coroner is to ask Dublin City Council and Waterways Ireland to consider putting safety barriers at the end of a steep descent on to the Royal Canal towpath at Ballybough, Dublin after a man drowned there last year.

Coroner Aisling Gannon said she would contact the authorities about the concerns raised at the inquest into the death of Mexican national Andrés Navarro (25), who lived on Clonliffe Road and fell into the canal near the bridge at Ballybough early on August 21st last.

Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard that Raymond McSweeney became aware of his husband Mr Navarro’s death while on holiday in Spain. He said he feared something was wrong when he was unable to contact him by phone.

The witness said he looked online at around 10pm that night and read that someone had been found in the canal. He phoned Mountjoy Garda station and was informed that Mr Navarro was the deceased.

Misadventures in babysitting: ‘She was adamant our son was never in danger’

---

Your top stories on Wednesday: Asylum seekers moved from Mount Street; Irish firm warns on EU ban on smoky flavourings for ham and crisps

---

Laura Kennedy: It’s hard to put my finger on what’s different about the atmosphere in this gym

---

Hot school meals: A close look at the ingredients list is not pretty. This is industrial food

---

A postmortem showed Mr Navarro had consumed more than six times the legal drink driving limit for alcohol, but Mr McSweeny told Ms Gannon they would drink wine and beer but “not a lot”.

He said his husband was in terrific form when he last saw him before leaving for Spain and that they had spoken by phone on the day before he died. He said Mr Navarro had no physical or mental health issues.

Mr McSweeney noted that the path leading down to the canal from the bridge at Ballybough was quite steep and had no safety barriers. “It is used by a lot of people. You would need good balance not to descend into the canal.”

Sgt Elaine Murtagh agreed that there was “quite a sharp drop down” towards the canal. She said CCTV footage had shown Mr Navarro earlier being refused entry to a club in Temple Bar when he had appeared “quite intoxicated”. She said he was also seen swaying from side to side outside a takeaway.

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”. Sgt Murtagh said she was satisfied there was nothing suspicious in relation to Mr Navarro’s death as CCTV did not show anybody else in the vicinity at the time.

Although the canal was only about two metres deep, the inquest heard Mr Navarro was unable to swim.

While his level of alcohol was “not independently fatal”, Ms Gannon said it would have affected his ability to get out of the water. Returning a verdict of death by misadventure, Ms Gannon offered her condolences to Mr McSweeney and Mr Navarro’s friends and his mother, Margarita, who joined the inquest by video link from Mexico.