The body of a Co Tipperary man who fell from a low cliff face near Doolin, Co Clare, was recovered early yesterday after the alarm was raised.
The man, who was believed to be in his 30s, had joined a beach party a few hundred yards from the north Clare village. He was named locally as Mr Seamus Maher from Thurles.
He is believed to have slipped from a narrow cliff walk and fallen 80 feet in the dark shortly after 3 a.m. His body was recovered from shallow water at 4.40 a.m. at Doonagore Bay by surfers after they raised the alarm and called out Doolin Coast Guard.
He had been with a stag night group which, after the pubs closed, joined about 20 surfers who had lit a bonfire at Tra Leathan. It is the same stretch of coastline where eight people were drowned in 1983 during the Lisdoonvarna festival.
An Irish Coast Guard Sikorsky helicopter from Shannon was called out. The alarm was raised by the surfers, who put on their equipment and recovered the body from shallow water. They brought it ashore on a surf board. Mr Matty Shannon of Doolin Coast Guard said the body was recovered from about six feet of water.