Death of woman on hen night being treated as tragic event

Gardaí are not treating the death of a mother of three, whose body was recovered from Carlingford Lough in Co Louth on Monday, as suspicious.

Ruth Maguire (30), from Newcastle, Co Down, was with a group of 32 people who were on a hen night in the Carlingford when she went missing.

There was great concern for her welfare as soon as it was realised she was missing because it was “out of character”, according to her friends.

The group was staying in a house in the village just a short walk from the pub they had been in.

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When they returned to the house at about 11.30pm Saturday, they realised Ms Maguire was not with them.

The group, the majority of whom are from Belfast, began searching for her.

It emerged Ms Maguire took a photograph outside a house that is across the road from the lough and posted it to Instagram at about midnight on Saturday.

As a result of that, searches began of the shore line and the lough itself.

At about 1.30pm on Monday, a body was spotted in the water between Carlingford Harbour and Greenore.

Tragic event

Gardaí confirmed that the body was that of the missing woman.

While a postmortem has to be carried out it is understood there is nothing to suggest her death was suspicious and it was being treated as a tragic event.

“I am sorry to say that a young female has been recovered and identified as the person reported missing,” said George Campbell of Greenore Coastguard. “Our sympathy goes out to the lady’s family.”

He thanked all of the organisations involved in the search for her including Clogherhead Coastguard and RNLI unit, An Garda Síochána, HM Coastguard, South Down Coastguard, Mourne Mountain Rescue, Newcastle RNLI, Irish Coastguard Helicopter Rescue 116, Dundalk Sub Aqua and the Dublin and Belfast operations radio rooms.

Bearings

The hen party arrived on Saturday afternoon having travelled from Belfast and on Monday, as the search continued, many of the group were by the lough waiting for news. “It is like a dream,” one said.

The village is a popular location for hen and stag events and a local woman said often people do not get their bearings before they head out to socialise.

“Everybody is very shocked here this morning,” Kay McKevitt said. “It often happens that a group comes to the village on a Saturday and by the end of the night they have forgotten which end of the village they are staying in. They are not in the village long enough to get their bearings.”