Body recovered in search for 12-year-old boy at Cliffs of Moher

A body has been recovered in the search for a 12-year-old boy who was reported missing at the Cliffs of Moher on Tuesday. 

The body was recovered around 3km northwest of Doolin in Galway Bay by members of the Doolin Coast Guard Unit and the Aran Islands Lifeboat Unit and will now be brought to the University of Limerick for identification and a post-mortem examination. 

A large-scale search operation involving Coast Guard helicopter R115, Doolin Coast Guard Unit, Civil Defence and Coast Guard Drone teams, Aran island lifeboat, and members of An Garda Síochána was launched on Tuesday when the boy was reported missing by his family. 

The boy was reportedly holidaying in the area with his family and became separated from his family during a visit to the Cliffs of Moher. It is understood that the boy and his family are from overseas. 

The land, air, and sea search operation involved personnel from eight different counties, including Civil Defense teams from Clare, Galway, Cork, Kerry, Mayo, Laois, and Wicklow. 

Divers from the Garda Water Unit and the Doolin Coast Guard undertook searches of the shoreline at the base of the cliffs on Wednesday, while the Cleggan Unit of the Coast Guard traveled to Clare to assist their Doolin colleagues carry out high-spec drone searches of the area. 

Watch officers at the Irish Coast Guard’s marine rescue coordination center in Kerry also used drift modeling software in an attempt to predict what direction a body may have been carried. 

The Irish Times reports that the body was recovered after the occupants of a pleasure craft reported seeing something in the water around 3km north of Doolin. 

Doolin Coast Guard launched its Delta rigged inflatable boat after the skipper of the pleasure craft raised the alarm, while the RNLI dispatched its all-weather lifeboat based at Kilronan on Inis Mór.

Doolin Coast Guard located a body after arriving at the location and provided and the remains were subsequently taken on board the Delta boat and brought to Doolin Pier.

The search operation has now been stood down.