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Gardaí to interview people who witnessed Galway pier tragedy

They have been named locally as 16-year-old John Keenan, his cousin Christopher Stokes (19) and their friend Wojcieck Panek (17)
Jack Quann
Jack Quann

07.36 13 Feb 2023


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Gardaí to interview people who...

Gardaí to interview people who witnessed Galway pier tragedy

Jack Quann
Jack Quann

07.36 13 Feb 2023


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Gardaí are to interview a number of people who witnessed a tragedy at Menlo Pier in Galway, in which three young men lost their lives.

16-year-old John Keenan, his cousin Christopher Stokes (19) and their friend Wojcieck Panek (17) died after the car they were in entered the water in the early hours of Saturday.

The Olympic Boxing Club in Galway, of which Mr Stokes and Mr Keenan were members, described the event as a "devastating tragedy."

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Neil Martin is a news reporter with the Irish Examiner.

He told Newstalk Breakfast a number of people were said to have witnessed the incident.

"Apparently there were two women in another car on this pier when the car with the three youths flipped over and went into the water," he said.

"They're understood also to be the women who... rang Gardaí at about 2.40am on Saturday morning.

"They're understood to have seen the car flip over into the water, and I'm told that shortly after the accident they could be heard screaming.

"It must have been a fairly traumatic thing to have to witness."

He said it still unclear exactly what happened.

"It's not immediately clear if the driver of the car was trying to do a u-turn at the pier," he said.

"It wasn't at the end of the pier - there's a kind of a bend leading down to the pier.

"They could have been turning into the peer at that bend and... misjudged the distance between the side of the corer and the drop into the water.

"It's also understood the car flipped over onto its roof into water that was around four feet deep, and about two feet of that was mud," he added.

Main image: 16-year-old John Keenan is seen in this undated photo. Picture by: Olympic Boxing Club Galway

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Christopher Stokes Galway Pier Galway Pier Tragedy John Keenan Menlo Pier Neil Martin Newstalk Breakfast Olympic Boxing Club Tragedy Wojcieck Panek

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