A body has been recovered from the sea off Co Clare.
The discovery was made as the search for a young boy, reported missing at the Cliffs of Moher last Tuesday, had entered its sixth day.
At around 10am today, the occupants of a pleasure craft reported seeing something in the water off the Clare coast around 2kms north of Doolin from where the Garda-led search was being coordinated. The skipper of the boat immediately raised the alarm.
Watch officers at the Irish Coast Guard’s marine rescue coordination centre in Kerry alerted the Doolin unit of the service as well as the RNLI and Gardaí. Doolin Coast Guard launched their Delta rigid inflatable boat (rib) while the RNLI dispatched its all-weather lifeboat based at Kilronan on Inis Mór.
On arriving at the location provided to them, Doolin Coast Guard personnel soon located a body.
With the assistance of RNLI volunteers, the remains were taken on board the Doolin Delta boat and recovered to Doolin Pier. The body was then taken to the nearby Coast Guard station. The RNLI lifeboat also travelled to Doolin with the Coast Guard boat.
The body has been removed by hearse to University Hospital Limerick where formal identification will be made and a postmortem examination carried out.
The multi-agency operation involved personnel from a total of eight.
A Garda spokesperson confirmed: “Following the recovery of a body this morning, Sunday, 28th July, a coastal search operation for a young boy missing from the vicinity of the Cliffs of Moher, Co. Clare since Tuesday afternoon, 23rd July 2024, has been stood down. A file will now be prepared for the Coroner.”
