We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
A FATHER AND his three-year-old son drowned after becoming trapped in a ditch while using a shortcut into an estate, an inquest has heard.
Sean Sweeney, 36, and his son Tyler Joyce were found dead in 10 inches of water at an unauthorised access point into Ashington Park in Dublin 7 on Easter Sunday, 27 March 2016.
The last footage of the pair captured on CCTV the previous night showed Sweeney staggering and stumbling with Tyler asleep on his shoulders.
Witness Stephen Hughes was among the last people to see the father and son alive outside a fast food outlet on Royal Canal Park at 9pm.
“I noticed a man walking up the road, stumbling, with a kid on his shoulders asleep. He was definitely drunk at least, stumbling over his own feet. He [could] barely walk. The kid was asleep 100%,” he told Dublin Coroner’s Court.
Hughes then received a text from his friend Ciara Ronan, who was waiting in a car outside. It read: “Oh God give him a lift please he’s almost after going on his face with the child. I feel sick.”
Witness Jason Quinn, then 15 years old, was using the shortcut to get home at around 9.45pm on 26 March when he heard the sound of a child’s scream. It was “pitch dark”, he said.
“I heard the noises of branches again and then the scream of a child. I am sure it was a child. It was not far from where I stopped,” he said.
When he heard a loud voice he feared it was a drug user and he ran all the way home. He told his father what he had heard.
Two bodies were found the following day by a passer-by at 3pm.
Pair of shoes
“I saw a pair of shoes. I took a second look and saw a body face down in a ditch. There was a gold football beside the feet,” Cian Finn told the inquest.
Inspector Thomas Lynch of Coolock Garda Station said Sweeney and his son were captured on CCTV on Royal Canal Park at 9.03pm.
“Mr Sweeney was walking and little Tyler was up on his shoulders. He was staggering and stumbling along,” Lynch said.
Sweeney had crossed the 9th lock on the Royal Canal, went through a fence and crossed over a wall into Ashington Park using a mud path. The track, next to a deep trench, is commonly used in the area as a shortcut.
“The trench is a 10-foot drop with very steep banks. The water was 10 to 12 inches deep in places,” Lynch said.
Members of Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) used an extension ladder, ropes and a pulley system to retrieve the bodies from the ditch. Asked if it would be difficult to get out of the ditch if someone fell in, DFB officer Derek Cheevers said he imagined it would be.
Tyler’s mother Pamela Joyce formally identified her son.
Cause of death
The cause of death in both cases was drowning. Toxicology results showed evidence of methadone, the anti-depressant mirtazapine and the sleeping tablet zopiclone in Sweeney’s system.
Sean Coleman, solicitor for Irish Rail, said there are plans for a footbridge and an unmanned station at the spot where the father and son tragically drowned. He said funding for this has been allocated. No timeframe was given.
There are ‘No Trespass’ signs to deter people from using the shortcut but it remains an ongoing problem, the inquest heard.
The track saves at least half an hour on journeys between Ashington and Finglas, the court heard.
Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane returned a verdict of accidental death for Tyler Joyce and a verdict of death by misadventure for his father.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
You can make tea and take long breaks when at home. It’s a good fit right enough
@v39e84kK: You can make tea in the office aswell. Whats your point?
@v39e84kK: I’ll try again. You last reply to me was deleted by The Jouranal. Don’t attempt anything like that again, unless you want to end up in court.
@v39e84kK: You can make tea and take long breaks in the office environment too. Have seen many examples of this over the years in private and public sector jobs.
@Belebopz: That’s the joke.
@David A. Murray: Sound.
@v39e84kK: It’s not a joke, more a backhanded aside about public and civil servants. Go make me a cup of tea will you seeing as you have time on your hands there.
@v39e84kK: I trust me understand each other. What’s typed on the Internet is permanently there (even if deleted, it’s still on record). I want no public association (either visible or not) with that person. I can understand that we can all react on the Internet and type something we would wish to take back (or have worded differently), but I cannot afford any connection to be made, even if it was indirect.
@v39e84kK: Do not question authority.
If there’s any inefficiency or increased agro for tax payers then they should have to go back in person. I don’t trust civil service or state sector to ensure people are actually working from home.
@Damon16: maybe you should talk to someone about you’re trust issues ?
Policy documents like this are all well and good but it will never be implemented as it’s written down, as it always comes down to the managers to do things right. I’ve a friend in the civil service who was being forced into the office, to do virtual meetings. Absolutely no rhyme or reason, other than micromanagement. In another Dept, all stats have gone up since wfh and backlogs greatly decreased.
Of course there will be people who will do nothing when at home … but they are the same people who do nothing when they’re in work either
Any chance the Motor Tax office can open ?
I know the folks in there will be filled with dread at the thought of risking their lives returning to work during a , eh , pandemic. The rest of seemed to fair ok returning to work long ago , with a low enough body count .
An anomaly on the online platform has been preventing me from donating to the tax fund for 9 months with no help on line .
Let’s pretend there was no pandemic. Get up off your a*r*s*e*s & get to the office. Like retail staff, like doctors & nurses. Like every other hard working employee around the country.
@John Barry: Working from home does not make you less hard working or less effective. Some tasks I can do from home and some require me to be on site. Depends on the task. Just because hard-working shop workers, doctors and nurses jobs need to be on-site, doesn’t mean every hard-working worker should be on site. The pandemic has meant that thinking on working from home has changed. We can’t unknow what we learned, so going back to all pre-pandemic work practices makes no sense.
@Mickey Finn: very true. In general I have been more productive since working from home as I don’t get those constant interruptions from small talk or general office noise. Also, I am more likely to finish off a task in the evening, as I am not worried about missing a train/bus, and not shattered from the commute.
Hope that some private companies will follow this example, as the Right to Request Remote Work Bill as not been enacted yet, and it is already facing some serious opposition from Employers’ groups.
@Dr. Emmett Lathrop: It’s so Ireland that we are making a bill on allowing people to ASK for things. Amazing. Truly is a microcosm of everything wrong with Irish politics.
@Dr. Emmett Lathrop:
We only have to go in one day a month now for team meetings.
They’re after pulling out most of the desks & converting the office space to blocks of meeting rooms with all the latest tech in them.
100” Microsoft surface screens in the larger ones and 50” ones in the smaller. Full digital conference facilities. Really quite impressive.
@Dr. Emmett Lathrop: You already have the right to request wfh from your employer. As long as your employer has the right to refuse said request then I’d be more than happy for the bill to proceed. He who pays the piper calls the tune as the saying goes.
Or to put it another way they will work from the office 80 percent of the time (4 days a week).
What a crock of nonsense.
We were allowed to WFH one day a week before covid. So they are just reverting back to what was there before. Very progressive.
the kind of article to stir up envy…
It doesn’t effect me one way or the other but this government is bizarre with its reversals, it depends which way the wind is blowing
40,000 civil servants, huh, I live off Fishamble street, next to the Dublin City Council building, the street has missive pot holes and graffiti on the street bins. What do they do again? Their a joke, privatize it all.
have your say