Man pushed under Dublin Bus and decapitated

THE distraught father of a man killed under a Dublin Bus believes his son was caught up in a row about money.

Eoghan Dudley (28), who died of horrific head injuries when he was allegedly pushed toward the bus, wasn't homeless and didn't drink, his family said.

Eoghan died almost immediately after he went under the 15-tonne vehicle at the junction of Dawson Street and Nassau Street in Dublin city centre.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, his father Seamus said there was no evidence that his son was intoxicated or had taken drugs at the time of his death.

Eoghan's family is from Rathfarnham in south Dublin.

His father admitted: "My son had his problems, but he was still human."

He believed that an altercation occurred when his son had been asked for money as he was walking along the street.

"He would have had no money except a couple of coins in his pocket," Seamus Dudley said.

Following the incident, it was widely reported that Eoghan might have been living on the street and that his death resulted from a dispute between homeless people.

However, Seamus said that this was not the case, and that his son Eoghan was not homeless and had moved into an apartment last year.

Seamus said he wanted to set the record straight and clarify misinformation about his son's death.

He said his son rarely drank and that the results of the postmortem examination showed he hadn't been drinking or taking drugs.

A man in his late 20s was last night being held in Pearse Street garda station following his arrest last Thursday.

Hundreds of commuters and shoppers were in the vicinity when the fatal collision happened last Thursday evening. It took place opposite Trinity College on Dublin's Nassau Street during rush hour.

Mr Dudley suffered horrendous head injuries, and a number of eye witnesses, including the bus driver, were treated for shock following the incident.

Witnesses said that there was a row between the victim and two other men which resulted in the appalling scene on Dawson Street.

Some of those who were close to the scene were visibly traumatised by the appalling nature of the man's death.

The driver had driven from Bray, Co Wicklow, on a busy route. He was heading towards Heuston station when, in a flash, the man ended up under his bus.

Mr Dudley added that he first believed that an unidentified man who had been decapitated in the bus incident was his son, from a description of his clothing which he read in this newspaper.

- Luke Byrne

Irish Independent