Two deaths prompt Coroner’s warning on Ecstasy

The Coroner for West Galway has issued a strong warning to anyone thinking of taking ecstasy-type drugs, after two young men drowned from the effects.

Following the inquiry into the deaths of the young dentist and a student, Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin expressed concern at the “whole load of new deaths from drugs.”

“You don’t know the effect it’s going to have on you … don’t go there,” he said.

Greek national, Nicolas Sweeney (42), from Creagan, Barna, was found on the seashore off the coastal village on December 21 last year, six days after he was last seen.

During the subsequent post mortem examination, he was found to have a so-called ‘designer drug’ – which had similarities to ecstasy – in his system.

The pathologist, Dr Michael Tan, said that it was likely produced by someone with a good knowledge of chemistry.

In relation to the second man, Joseph Atkinson (24) from Longford, it was found that ecstasy toxicity was a contributory factor in his death.

The inquiry had heard from a fellow GMIT student who last saw him on September 16. She said that when he started missing lectures over the following two days, she knew something was wrong.

“I’d heard about the male found in the Docks… I rang the Gardaí and said that Joseph hadn’t come home,” Orla Corcoran recalled.

“I gave them a description, and then they showed me a picture of the body found, and it was my friend from Longford.”

For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune