Tributes paid at funeral of Polish cave diver

MEMBERS OF the Polish community in Ireland, along with local people from the south Galway area, gardaí, divers and members of…

MEMBERS OF the Polish community in Ireland, along with local people from the south Galway area, gardaí, divers and members of the Irish Cave Rescue Organisation, attended the funeral yesterday of the diver who lost his life in the underground caves near Gort.

Artur Kozlowski was highly respected as one of the leading exponents of underground diving here.

Gort parish priest Fr Tommy Marrinan told the large congregation at Kiltartan church that Mr Kozlowski was very popular with local people when he visited the district regularly to explore the labyrinth of caves in the south Galway area.

Mr Kozlowski, who lived in Shankill, Dublin, died when he failed to return from a solo dive last Monday week.

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His body was found the following day and was brought to the surface after an arduous operation by divers last Saturday.

Mr Kozlowski’s mother Jola and his sisters Agata and Malgorzata travelled from their home in Poznan for the funeral.

Malgorzata, in a moving address in Polish and English, expressed her family’s appreciation for all who had helped and offered support, and said her brother was a true adventurer.

“He was a man who would go against the flow, he would go where other people would not. But he was afraid of heights and would sometimes wake up from a nightmare about heights.

“In a cave, you never know what you will find around the next corner, he was going his own way and wherever his heart took him,” she added.