THE REMAINS of an Aran islander, who was swept into the sea by a freak wave as he stood chatting to his sister on a pier nearly nine years ago, were identified by DNA profiling, an inquest into his death heard.
Mary Ann Ó Conghaile told the inquiry at Galway Courthouse that she had left her home on Inis Óirr to get the boat to Ros a Mhíl on November 25th, 2000.
She said the sea was very rough and the weather unusually bad and, when the boat was docking in Inis Meáin, she noticed her brother, Michael Dara Ó Conghaile of Mór Village, standing on the pier. She recalled to the inquest that he asked was she disembarking, but she told him she was going on to Galway.
“I then watched in horror as a huge wave appeared and took him and his motorcycle into the sea . . . the swell took him away,” she said.
Her brother tried to grab a pallet that had also been washed off, but could not fight the sea and was carried away, his sister said.
The inquest heard that the Aran-based lifeboat searched for his body that night, but that it was called off at 5pm when darkness fell. Despite its resumption the following day, his body was never found.
Nearly a year later a fisherman, Peter Campbell, recovered a human skull from the scallop dredge of his trawler 1½ miles from Inis Meain. When the crew landed their catch, they brought the remains to a doctor.
Gardaí subsequently took it for DNA profiling to a forensics laboratory in west Yorkshire. Their findings and those from the anatomy department of NUI, Galway, were read into the record.
The anatomy department deduced from the skull that it belonged to a young man, of approximately 20-25 years of age at the time of death.
In England, the remains and a sample from the dead man’s parents were sent for DNA comparison.
The result was not totally conclusive, but there was “extremely strong support to propose that the skull is from a natural son of theirs”, the inquest was told.
Coroner Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin said that the findings indicated a very high probability that the remains found were those of the late Michael Dara Ó Conghaile.
“I’m going to make the presumption on that evidence that it is him,” he told his family, before returning a verdict of accidental drowning.
Dr MacLoughlin offered sincere sympathy to Mr Ó Conghaile’s sister, their parents, and family on the young man’s very untimely and tragic death.
Insp Pat McHugh said that it was an awfully tragic event to see a young man carried away, and then for the search not to yield a body, and he offered the family his condolences.