A Dublin man and his elderly father - whose bodies were discovered by a neighbour in their home in Crumlin last year - both died on the same day as a result of a condition linked to excessive drinking of alcohol over extended periods, an inquest has heard.
The coroner, Clare Keane, said it was “a tragic coincidence” that the deaths of John “Jackie” Maguire (84) and his son, Robert, (55) in a house at Saul Road, Crumlin on April 9, 2021 had occurred at the same time. A sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard that emergency services initially feared the victims might have died from carbon monoxide poisoning because of the unusual circumstance of more than one body being found in the house with no sign of any disturbance.
A son and brother of the victims, Paul Maguire, said the health of his father who had cared for his late mother, Betty, throughout their married life had deteriorated following her death. Mr Maguire said his brother, Robert, was a very popular man, who was an alcoholic.
He described how his brother, a former An Post employee, would stop drinking for periods but would neglect himself when he resumed taking alcohol. The inquest heard the father and son would consume two to three bottles of whiskey between them on a daily basis, while they were also heavy smokers.
The witness, who visited his brother and father in the family home several times a week, said they had both looked frail on the last occasion he saw them on the day before their death as they had not eaten in a week. Fighting back tears, Mr Maguire said it was a total shock to discover that both his father, whom he described as a good family man and husband, and his brother were both dead when he was called to the scene.
“It was such a shock that both my da and Robbie died on the same day. I loved them both,” he remarked. In reply to questions from Dr Keane, Mr Maguire said his father had got annoyed with him for trying to feed him in the week before his death, while he claimed his brother “forgot about food” when he was drinking.
He told the inquest that he had wanted them both to be seen by a doctor but they had resisted getting any kind of help from the health services. Mr Maguire said another brother, Mark, had also died from alcohol.
“I often expected to find one of them dead but I didn’t expect the two of them on the same day,” he added. A neighbour, Marie Mason, who checked in on the father and son daily, gave evidence of discovering Robert Maguire dead on a sofa in a living room, when she called into their house on the morning of April 9 last year.
Breaking down in the witness box, Ms Mason said she was thinking how she was going to tell Robert’s father that his son was dead before also discovering his body in a downstairs bedroom. She said neither man had been eating in the week before their death.
“They gave up the two of them,” she observed. Dr Keane said post-mortems on the bodies of both men had shown they died from alcoholic ketoacidosis – a condition where an excess of acid builds up in body fluids due to heavy consumption of alcohol.
The coroner said the condition was reversible but could also be lethal. “Not eating made the difference,” said Dr Keane.
The coroner said contributory factors in the case of Robert Maguire’s death were his use of benzodiazepines, heart disease and a fatty liver. In his father’s case, Dr Keane said contributory factors in his death were poor nutrition and a fatty liver.
Offering her condolences to Mr Maguire, the coroner returned a verdict of misadventure in relation to both deaths.
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