A man has died on a train home from the Ploughing Championships

Very sad news.

A man has died on a train journey home from the National Ploughing Championships. The man in his sixties was on a train to Cork when he began to feel ill as it approached Limerick. According to The Mirror, a fellow passenger performed CPR on the man and a defibrillator was used by Irish Rail staff before the train stopped at Limerick Junction. Emergency services were rushed to the scene but he was pronounced dead later on. Another passenger on the train, Rory, spoke to The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTE Radio One explaining what happened:

"One of the reasons I called in was to commend Iarnrod Eireann on their professionalism and care for him and the dignity they showed him. "I was just chit chatting away to this man and the next thing his friend began making funny noises and good God I couldn’t believe what I saw. "I thought he was kind of falling asleep and the next thing I knew his friend called me over. "He just took his last breath and he was gone. I couldn’t believe it."

He added:

"We put him down on the floor and did mouth to mouth resuscitation on him but nothing was happening. "Eventually a defibrillator came but nobody could use one. "When the train arrived at Limerick Junction, a member of Iarnrod Eireann staff came and said I am trained and he took over and worked hard at it. He was marvellous. “The emergency staff came along and worked hard on him but unfortunately nothing was happened. After some time the doctor came and pronounced him dead. "If his family are listening, I hope they know that he wasn’t alone, people around him were helping him in every way possible and those ladies were continuously saying prayers in the background. "His passage was as peaceful as possible. “It happened in five blinks of the eye."

Iarnrod Éireann released a statement following the incident:

"On Tuesday, Iarnrod Éireann staff were alerted to an incident on board the 16:52 service from Tullamore to Cork, set up to facilitate the Ploughing Championships. "Staff on board the train alerted station controllers at Limerick Junction that a man had fallen seriously ill and emergency services were called. "A staff member attempted to revive the man using a defibrillator upon arrival. Irish Rail expresses our deepest sympathies with the man’s family.”