A suicide by drowning that happened near Loughshinny (late 80s/early 90s)

briany · 28-08-2018 03:56PM #1

Does anybody remember hearing about this, or know more about it?

The details that I know was that a man (not a local, AFAIK) had killed his wife, and then drove down to Loughshinny where he waded into the tide at Ballustree (the beach at the north side of the Drumanagh headland, across the bay from Loughshinny harbour). He had slashed his wrists before wading into the sea, and was seen wading in by several locals stood on the harbour who didn't realise what he was doing until it was too late, and were too far away, besides.

And in addition to that, the couple had had a young son who had some sort of affliction (I heard Down Syndrome, but could be wrong).

It's a really tragic incident, but I cannot find a shred about it online, which I find odd since a murder-suicide would have been big news at the time, and I would think there'd be some reference to it that I could find floating about now, but no luck.

shooter69 · 29-08-2018 07:26PM

Yes I remember this happening but only the bit about him cutting his wrists and wading into the sea , don’t recall the murder part though ??

briany · 30-08-2018 01:07PM

shooter69 wrote: »

Yes I remember this happening but only the bit about him cutting his wrists and wading into the sea , don’t recall the murder part though ??

The murder part of the story was apparently related to locals by the reporters who came to Loughshinny to get eyewitness accounts regarding the suicide.

The thing is that I know I'd been able to look this up years ago without too much trouble, although I can't remember what terms I used to successfully find it. Memory of what details I got back then are fuzzy - I *think* I remember the murderer as living in Howth and he murdered his wife because of general marital stress and strife that came to a head. This could be inaccurate, though.

Is there any database of crimes in Ireland that's easily searchable?

Dizzyblonde · 30-08-2018 06:42PM

You could do a search in the newspaper archives: https://www.irishnewsarchive.com/publications-by-county

briany · 30-08-2018 07:35PM

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

You could do a search in the newspaper archives: https://www.irishnewsarchive.com/publications-by-county

Thanks a lot, that's helped me narrow it down a bit more. A couple of publications in that archive reference a man being found drowned in the sea after his wife was found dead by stabbing. The reports are from mid-January 1990. That's just what I can glean from the headline, being that you can't really read the article text unless you want to pay 50 euro for a printed copy of the page.

thegrowreport · 30-08-2018 10:41PM

briany wrote: »

Thanks a lot, that's helped me narrow it down a bit more. A couple of publications in that archive reference a man being found drowned in the sea after his wife was found dead by stabbing. The reports are from mid-January 1990. That's just what I can glean from the headline, being that you can't really read the article text unless you want to pay 50 euro for a printed copy of the page.

your local public library has access to the publications you need. You can even access them online without having to visit your library - as long as you have a valid library card and know your PIN number..if you don't have these pop into your local branch with some id and they will look after you. Tell 'em I sent ya

A suicide by drowning that happened near Loughshinny (late 80s/early 90s)

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