*Photograph: John Mangan
A BODY has been recovered from the sea near Doolin, six days after a search operation began for a missing twelve year old boy.
Members of the Doolin Coast Guard Unit and the Aran Islands lifeboat unit recovered the body about 3km northwest of Doolin in Galway Bay on Sunday morning.
At around 10am, the occupants of a pleasure craft reported seeing something in the water, and the skipper of the boat immediately raised the alarm.
Officers at the Irish Coast Guard’s marine rescue coordination centre in Kerry alerted the Doolin unit, as well as the RNLI and Gardaí.
Doolin Coast Guard launched their Delta rib while the RNLI dispatched its all-weather lifeboat based at Kilronan on Inis Mór.
After the body was recovered, it was brought by hearse to University Hospital Limerick where official identification and a post-mortem examination will be carried out.
Since Tuesday, a search operation had been in flow near the Cliffs of Moher after a twelve year old boy was reported as missing. The boy is understood to have been holidaying in the area with his family from overseas. They were visiting the Cliffs of Moher when he became separated from his family.
A large-scale search operation was launched which involved the Coast Guard helicopter R115, Doolin Coast Guard Unit, Civil Defence and Coast Guard Drone teams, Aran island life boat and members of An Garda Síochána. The search has now been stood down.
A land, air and sea search and rescue operation was mounted at around 2pm on Tuesday and continued until sea conditions had started to deteriorate.
Divers from the Garda Water Unit and Doolin Coast Guard carried also undertook searches of the shoreline at the base of the cliffs on Wednesday however low cloud and mist hampered that operation. The Cleggan unit of the Coast Guard in Galway travelled to Clare to assist their Doolin colleagues using high-spec drones to search the cliff base and wider coastline.
During the week, Civil Defence teams from Cork North, Cork West and Kerry dispatched drone teams to assist in the operation. Further Civil Defence teams from Laois and Wicklow joined the search effort while another unit from Dublin was due to travel to Clare on Sunday.
Meanwhile, members of Galway and Mayo Civil Defence carried out searches of the Galway Bay coastline as part of the operation.
The Costello Bay unit of the Irish Coast Guard also searched areas along the Galway coastline while members of the Inis Oírr unit carried out shoreline searches in their area. That unit is land-based and is managed by Doolin Coast Guard.
Officers at the Irish Coast Guard’s marine rescue coordination centre in Kerry, who have been coordinating the air and sea searches, used drift modelling software in an effort to establish what direction a body might be carried.
The Shannon based Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 115 had also been carrying out searches along the Clare coastline and in Galway Bay.
