The work of two river rescue services was praised at a coroner's court yesterday as the coroner commented on the numbers of people who drown in the River Boyne.
Drogheda Coroner's Court heard that on one morning last August pathologist Dr Johnathan Ryan had carried out post-mortems on two people who had drowned in separate incidents in the river.
The Louth coroner, Mr Ronan Maguire, said there was an "inordinately high number of drownings in Drogheda.
"It doesn't happen in Dundalk. It is the Boyne, it is there in the middle of the town and I have great admiration for the river rescue services who have a thankless and unpleasant task."
He said the Drogheda River and Sea Rescue Service and the Boyne Fishermen's Rescue and Recovery Service "are busier than they would care to be and are doing a phenomenal job."
Garda Insp Vincent Rowan said both deaths were "tragic and it is happening too often".
In one case, a verdict of suicide was returned in relation to a 31-year-old woman who had left a suicide note. The second dealt with a 44-year-old man who died from drowning and aopen verdict was returned.