A 49-year-old man has died after getting into difficulty while scuba diving off the coast of Co Donegal, Ireland, on the afternoon of 22 June.
Patrick Doran, from Carrick-on-Shannon in County Leitrim, was diving as part of the two-day North West Dive Rally organised by the Donegal Bay Sub Aqua Club, in which more than 100 divers participated. A number of dives had been planned for the event at the local dive spots of Malin Beg and Sliabh Liag.
The alarm was raised shortly after midday when the two divers ‘got into difficulty’. A search and rescue operation was launched by the Malin Head Coast Guard with assistance from the Garda SÃochána (Irish Police) and National Ambulance Service.
One of the divers, a man in his 60s thought to be Mr Doran’s dive buddy, was rescued and taken to Galway University Hospital, where he received treatment for decompression sickness.
Mr Doran was sadly pronounced dead at the scene, with the dive club cancelling the rest of the rally in light of the tragedy. A post-mortem to determine the cause of death is set to take place during the coming days.
