FLOOD DEATHS:TWO PEOPLE died as a result of the rainfall that caused severe flooding in the east of the country on Monday.
The body of an off-duty garda who was swept into a river in Co Wicklow that night was located yesterday, while a woman was also found dead in a flooded flat in Dublin.
Garda Ciaran Jones (25), from Manor Kilbride, was dragged into the Liffey from the Ballysmuttan Bridge close to his home at about 7pm on Monday after he attempted to warn motorists not to cross the bridge. His remains were found at 9am yesterday by a local search team some 4km downstream of where the incident happened at Ballyward Bridge.
Supt Eamon Keogh of Blessington Garda station said Garda Jones was crossing the bridge to warn an oncoming car when a surge of water swept him into the river, flooded due to the rain.
“He was seen for a few moments by friends and then he wasn’t seen again,” he said.
His father John and mother Brenda returned to Ireland yesterday from a holiday abroad and are grieving for Garda Jones with his sister Michelle and brother Alan, who is understood to have witnessed the incident.
Mick O’Dwyer, who stood down as the senior Wicklow football boss this year after five years at the helm, paid tribute to his former charge, who, despite playing club football with Kilbride at junior level, managed to make his senior breakthrough under the Waterville native’s tenure.
“He was an exceptional young footballer, a really skilful player and fantastic striker of the ball,” Mr O’Dwyer said.
“He was so committed to his job that he found it difficult to train at times and he also had some bad luck with some injuries as he came through. But most of all he was an outstanding young gentleman – a true gentleman – you just couldn’t meet a finer young man.”
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter offered his condolences to Garda Jones’s family and friends.
“The Garda Síochána and all of us have lost a brave man who put his life at risk in helping the public at a time of great danger, and the Stepaside community have lost a dedicated member of the Stepaside Garda station.”
“His courageous actions were in the finest tradition of the Garda Síochána,” he said.
In Dublin, the body of a woman was found in the flooded basement of a house in Parnell Road in Harold’s Cross, Dublin.
Named locally as Celia de Jesus (35) from the Philippines, she is believed to have worked in a nearby hospice.
A neighbour told RTÉ that the basement was full of water, he could hear crying and broke the glass. He said water flowed in from the road and after five minutes the crying stopped.
Neighbours called emergency services at 11pm on Monday. A preliminary search was carried out by the Garda Water Unit at about 1am but they failed to recover the body. Her body was later found when Dublin Fire Brigade pumped water from the basement .