Shock at double drowning tragedy
THE search for the second person missing in the Silverstrand drowning tragedy near Salthill earlier this week continued last evening up until the fall of darkness and will be continued at first light this morning [Thursday].
On Tuesday afternoon last, rescue services recovered the body of internationally renowned singer-songwriter Johnny Duhan (74) from the sea near Silverstrand after he hadn’t returned to his home in Barna following his normal daily morning swim.
The alarm was raised shortly after 10am on Tuesday morning, triggering a major rescue operation involving Civil Defence, the Coast Guard, lifeboat services and the Gardaí.
Around the same time in the Silverstrand area, emergency rescue services were alerted to a second person feared missing in the water – a woman in her 30s, who had also gone for a morning swim.
Family and work colleagues of the missing woman were concerned when she didn’t show up at her workplace as normal on Tuesday morning – as of Wednesday evening at 4.30pm, the search for this woman was continuing.
Conditions in Galway Bay on Tuesday morning were described as calm but a dense fog which had descended overnight had not lifted, reducing visibility to just a number of metres in places.
From early Tuesday afternoon, the rescue services were joined by hundreds of volunteers who walked the coastline from Salthill to Spiddal in the hope of locating the missing woman but for the second day in a row the search operation was hampered by dense fog in places.
Boat owners from different parts of the West of Ireland also joined the search operation through the course of Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning in an effort to try and locate the missing woman, who is from the locality.
The rescue services don’t know if the two swimmers got into difficulty separately or whether one of them may have gone to help the other, as no alarm was raised about anyone being in trouble that morning in the Silverstrand area.
Tributes have poured in for Limerick native Johnny Duhan – who had been living with his family in Barna for some years – with Taoiseach Simon Harris offering condolences to his family while also saying that the missing woman was also in the thoughts of everyone.
Johnny Duhan was a prolific songwriter, probably most famous for his song ‘The Voyage’ which was a hit for Christy Moore in 1989, and which tells the story of the composer’s life and family experiences.
Singer Mary Coughlan, composer Phil Coulter and Fiachna Ó Braonáoin of the original Hothouse Flowers, were just some of those who paid touching tributes to Johnny Duhan this week.
Johnny Duhan is survived by his wife Maureen; five children, Ronan, Niamh, Kevin, Ailbhe and Brian; daughter-in-law Siobhán; sons-in-law Pádraic and Ian; and Brian’s partner Emma; grandchildren; siblings; extended family; neighbours; friends; and by his devoted legion of fans across the country and internationally.
Pictured: The late Johnny Duhan: prolific songwriter.