Two divers die in separate incidents in Donegal and Cork

Two men have died in separate diving incidents in Co Donegal and Co Cork this weekend.

An alarm was raised when a 45-year-old Limerick man surfaced to his boat after a dive near Roches Point at the entrance to Cork Harbour yesterday.

The man was taken to shore. Members of Crosshaven RNLI lifeboat administered first aid before the man was taken to Cork University Hospital (CUH).

He was pronounced dead there a short time later.

It is understood the man was a member of a voluntary search and rescue unit in North Cork. A postmortem examination is scheduled to take place at CUH later today.

The man has yet to be named.

A Polish diver died in a separate incident off the coast of north Donegal this morning.

The accident happened near Inishtrahull Island some 10km to the northwest of Malin Head.

The man got into difficulty after returning to the surface after a deep dive and the coast guard was called. He was airlifted to Altnagelvin hospital in Derry but was pronounced dead on arrival.

The island has Ireland’s most northerly lighthouse but has been uninhabited since the late 1980s. It is protected area because of its wildlife.

A spokesman for the Belfast Coastguard said it diverted a helicopter which was already en route to another incident on the Antrim coast on hearing of the alert in Co Donegal.

Ian Murdock said the alert was raised by a man who was on a boat at the scene.

“He reported a diver had made a rapid ascent from 45 metres and he arrived on the surface unconscious so we re-tasked the helicopter to that job which was just off Inishtrahull.”

He told the BBC: “The diver was airlifted and was in hospital within an hour. He was a Polish national, we believe, but unfortunately he was dead on arrival.”