{"id":473790,"date":"2026-05-29T22:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T22:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/473790\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T22:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T22:44:08","slug":"family-of-man-who-drowned-at-youghal-ironman-event-disappointed-at-inquest-verdict-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/473790\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of man who drowned at Youghal Ironman event disappointed at inquest verdict \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of a man who drowned during a 2023 Youghal Ironman<\/a> event have said they are disappointed in the outcome of an inquest that recorded a verdict of accidental death. <\/p>\n

Brendan Wall (43) from Co Meath died while nearing the finish line in difficult conditions during the swim leg of the event. <\/p>\n

On Friday, Cork County Coroner Frank O\u2019Connell recorded a narrative verdict that Wall had died at Market Square in Youghal on August 20th, 2023.<\/p>\n

The inquest had previously heard evidence from Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster that Wall died from cardio-respiratory failure due to drowning. Another of the 1,396 participants in the Ironman event, Ivan Chittenden<\/a> (64) from Canada, also died from drowning in the swim.<\/p>\n

The resumed inquest heard from Wall\u2019s friend Barry Cronin that he, Wall and Wall\u2019s sister Maria entered the water together but that he soon lost sight of them once he had got through three breaking waves near the shore as there was a strong swell and pull to the left.<\/p>\n

He said he was swimming towards the first marker buoy when a steward in a kayak told people to change direction and swim towards the second buoy. He said it was quite chaotic as between 100 and 200 swimmers converged on the second buoy at the same time.<\/p>\n

A lot of people were shouting for help at that stage, he explained, but he finished the course and it was only after he came ashore that he discovered his friend had died. He only learned days later in the media that Triathlon Ireland had not sanctioned the swim<\/a> that morning.<\/p>\n

Witness Kathleen Sheehan told how she was on duty as a safety officer in a kayak near the finish line. She said she saw a man, whom she believed was Wall, swimming strongly over two or three strokes and she noticed he had stopped after swimming into a patch of seaweed. Being a nurse, she said, \u201cI immediately thought heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

She paddled over to him and extended a paddle for him to grab but he made no movement. She raised her paddle and blew her whistle to raise the alarm and a man waded out and turned the swimmer over, but he was not responsive.<\/p>\n

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Questioned by barrister for Wall\u2019s family, Eamon Shanahan, Sheehan said there had been a lot of confusion that morning as to whether the swim would go ahead; it was put back from 5.45am until 6.45am, and she learned it was going ahead only moments before it started. <\/p>\n

Shanahan submitted to the coroner that he should call representatives from Ironman and Triathlon Ireland to clarify what discussions took place about sanctioning the event and if any steps were taken to notify participants that it was not sanctioned by Triathlon Ireland.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell said he was not going to allow the inquest to diverge into a dispute between Ironman and Triathlon Ireland and he believed he was correct in focusing on the competition finish where Wall had drowned.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knows there was some risk in this, it was not risk free and everybody signed a waiver [recognising that] as far as I know,\u201d said O\u2019Connell before returning a verdict of accidental death, after which he extended his sympathies to Wall\u2019s fiancee, Tina Mackay, and his family.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the inquest, Wall\u2019s brother Martin expressed disappointment that the coroner had not called executives from Ironman, Triathlon Ireland or Cork County Council, which hosted the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe as a family are deeply disappointed with today\u2019s verdict \u2013 we believe there has been a serious lack of accountability from Cork County Council, Ironman and Triathlon Ireland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor us, the process was not only about understanding how Brendan lost his life but also about ensuring lessons were learned to help prevent another family experiencing this heartbreak. Sadly, we feel this opportunity has been missed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also disappointed that no meaningful recommendations were made on safety measures or oversight to reduce the risk of future tragedies at events like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the 2023 event, Triathalon Ireland, the national governing body, said technical officials had attended before the start of the race to review conditions and carry out a water safety assessment. As a result of \u201cadverse conditions\u201d, it said it told the race organisers it was not possible to sanction the race.<\/p>\n

Event organisers, the Ironman Group, said standard safety protocol checks were carried out and determined the water conditions \u201cwere safe for the swim to take place\u201d. It said its utmost priority was the safety of participants. <\/p>\n

In a letter to county councillors in 2023, chief executive Tim Lucey said the local authority was a \u201chost sponsor\u201d of the event and that Ironman was the owner with sole responsibility for its management and co-ordination. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a man who drowned during a 2023 Youghal Ironman event have said they are disappointed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[46,63,61,60,43,146744],"class_list":["post-473790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork","tag-cork-county-council","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-youghal-ironman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}