The body of a young man reported to have fallen from the Cliffs of Moher in North Clare this afternoon has been successfully recovered in a multi-agency operation.
Gardaí and the Doolin unit of the Irish Coast Guard were initially tasked to the incident along with Gardaí.
The Aran Island RNLI lifeboat and the Shannon-based Coast Guard helicopter, Rescue 115, were also requested to assist.
The body of the man was quickly located and a plan devised to recover the deceased.
The Aran Islands lifeboat launched its smaller Y-class inflatable boat and carried RNLI and Coast Guard volunteers ashore.
The crew of an Inland Fisheries Ireland rigid inflatable boat (RIB), which had been on patrol in the area at the time, also offered to assist.
Rescue 115 landed on the clifftop while the recovery operation continued below. The helicopter later returned to Shannon Airport to refuel before rejoining the recovery operation.
However, while the man’s body was successfully recovered, conditions in the area began to deteriorate and rescuers were unable to refloat the RNLI Y-class boat.
Following a detailed assessment of the situation, the decision was made to evacuate the personnel from the base of the cliff and leave the inflatable boat on the shore to be recovered later. All four personnel, who were never in danger, were safely winched on board the helicopter.
The man’s body was recovered to Doolin Coast Guard station where he was formally pronounced dead. His remains were later removed to University Hospital Limerick where a postmortem examination was due to take place.
