Gardaí seek help identifying body taken from Liffey last May

GARDAÍ HAVE appealed for help in identifying the body of a man taken from Dublin’s river Liffey in May, after at least six months in the water.

The man’s body was discovered in the water at Custom House Quay on May 14th. A postmortem determined that the body had been in the river for upwards of six months.

“A distinctive feature may be that he was wearing two sets of plastic rosary beads around his neck – one white and one blue,” a Garda spokesman said yesterday.

The man would have been 40 to 45 years old and between 5ft 8in and 5ft 9in in height. He was wearing a brown hooded top with the word ‘‘Everlast’’ printed on the back in blue letters. He also wore a pair of ‘‘Hoi Polloi’’ jeans with ‘‘Lacoste’’ tracksuit bottoms underneath. The tracksuit bottoms were navy with a white stripe. The man also wore a black leather belt with the brand ‘‘Levi’’ on the buckle, and white ‘‘Y-3’’ runners.

On RTÉ’s News at One, Supt Ray Barry of Store Street station said the man may be familiar to churchgoers or people who work in or use homeless hostels.

A distinguishing feature was that “he never had any dental treatment at any stage in his life which would lead one to believe that he came from a poor or deprived background”.

Supt Barry said a very large dredger had moved the Samuel Beckett bridge on the day the body was discovered. “We’re satisfied now that that dredger actually moved the body from the sand and from the silt and the mud that’s in the bottom of the river and hence it floated up to the surface.”

He was satisfied that foul play was not involved.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Garda at Store Street on 01-6668000.