IT was the night Mayo beat Kerry in the All Ireland semi final, and everyone in Castlebar was in high spirits, none more so than 18 year old Justin Clark.
Like many of his friends, he went to a local disco, Panama Jacks, to celebrate Mayo's win. Some of the young people were drinking heavily, but not Justin. A few of them went looking for drugs, but Justin did not. Yet, by the following day, he had died from a morphine overdose.
A friend, James Lohan, yesterday told an inquest in Westport of the events leading up to Justin's death last August 12th.
After the disco they went to get chips and then, at about 3 a.m., tried unsuccessfully to get into a Mayo GAA function. Justin wanted a drink, but the bars were shut, so he had to make do with an abandoned half pint of lager.
They met other young people they knew, among them Ian Burke. Just in had been painting his uncle's holiday house in the town and had the keys to it. All three went there to listen to music.
Ian Burke told the inquest that he had stolen a bottle of gin from his grandmother's house earlier that day and had been drinking on the Mall in Castlebar with two friends, Niall Carney and Justin Conlon. They had also bought about a dozen cans of lager.
Niall's father was a doctor and both parents were away on holiday, so the three of them went to the Carney house, where Niall asked Ian if he wanted some drugs. He said he did. Niall opened a briefcase and showed Ian containers of clearly marked morphine tablets. He took out the tablets and gave Ian four from the 100 rug container and five from the 60 rug container. Ian swallowed four of the former and later two of the latter, putting the other three in his pocket. They then left the house.
Niall went into a disco across the road, but Ian did not have enough money, so he went down the town, where he met Justin Clark and James Lohan, but not before vomiting violently.
Niall Carney also told the inquest about buying drink and collecting further cans from his parents' house. "On the way up (to the house), myself and Ian Burke decided we were going to take drugs. I was going to take my father's medicine bag from the car. I was aware that it was in the car as I had promised my father that I would secure it while he was on holidays.
"I opened the bag. I found morphine in the second drawer down. Ian Burke got up and looked in the same compartment and saw the morphine tablets straight away and took the blister packet. I closed the medicine bag and put it back out in the car. I would say I took about four tablets, the blue ones, the 100 rug ones."
He then went to the disco, while Ian went looking for other company, ending up in Justin Clark's uncle's house with himself and James Lohan. There they drank a little "foreign looking" alcohol Justin's uncle had. It made Ian sick straight away and he told the other two he had taken morphine,
According to James Lohan, Ian then produced some tablets from his pocket. "I felt under pressure, peer pressure, in case I would have to take one, so in order to get out of the situation I said I would make some chips", he said.
Meanwhile, Justin had taken the tablets with a glass of water. B about 5.30 a.m. they were all getting tired and Justin was dozing in an armchair. He let them out and they went home.
Jason King was another friend of Justin Clark's. He was contacted by Justin's mother on Tuesday morning, as the family was worried. He had been told Justin was in Spencer Street, so he and a friend went there and knocked. When they got no answer they forced the door open. They found Justin lying over two armchairs lacing each other, wrapped in a blanket. "I shook him. He was cold. I knew he was dead."
Dr Malachy Little said he had carried out a post mortem examination on Justin Clark in University College Hospital, Galway. He sent samples of blood and urine to the State Laboratory in Dublin. These showed 0.5 microgrammes per millilitre of free morphine in his blood and 8.9 mg/ml in his urine. There were small traces of paracetemol and an anti asthma drug and a small level of alcohol in the blood.
In his opinion, Justin Clark died from a morphine overdose.
Ms Siobhan Stokes, of the State Laboratory, told the inquest that the 0.5 mg/ml of free morphine found in the blood was 10 times the minimum recorded as having caused a death. A lethal dose of morphine for a non tolerant adult could be a low as 120 mg.
In response to Mr Aidan Crowley, solicitor for the Clark family, she said: "There is no suggestion of any other drug abuse. It was a once off unfortunate occurrence."
After the verdict was announced Mr Crowley said that, following Justin's death, a national newspaper had reported that he was been involved in the theft of drugs. "No drugs were stolen", he said. "Drugs were available which should not have been available. All of us in a position of responsibility should be particularly vigilant."