The mother of a student who tragically fell 60 feet to his death has praised his kindness and revealed she has considered fundraising to cover the blowhole he stumbled into.
Maura King, who spoke about the heartbreaking loss of Conor King 10 months ago, stressed she is determined to save other families from suffering their “catastrophic” grief.
The 22-year-old was on a camping trip with friends and took a few steps backwards from where he had been standing, not knowing he was so close to a clifftop blowhole.
Conor had pitched a tent with his group of pals near Garretstown beach in Co Cork and lit a fire before tragedy struck on April 24, 2021.
Friend Gary Barrett immediately dived in to the blowhole and performed CPR for 40 minutes before being persuaded by the emergency services to leave the area to receive treatment for hypothermia.
Conor, from Douglas, died instantly and his body was recovered by rescue divers shortly after midnight.
Maura, who appealed to Cork County Council to cover up the deadly 60-foot drop, said: “Please do something over that blowhole.
“I know the blowhole is still open because I go up there on occasion.
“I had to go up there the first time on my hands and knees because I’ve always been afraid of heights and of course with the awfulness that my son fell from that height
“I’ve been on to [County Councillor] Seamus McGrath and he is very helpful and he has been on to the council.
“This was back in July and the council said they don’t own it, somebody else owns it, all of this stuff.
“It doesn’t matter who owns it, it should be fenced off.
“There’s a responsibility to the people, to protect them,” she told the Opinion Line on Cork’s 96fm today.
“People continue to go up there and I actually considered fundraising to put up a fence myself and I shouldn’t have to do stuff like that.
“The rapid response guys said it, the Coroner said it should be fenced off and that it was quite obviously a place where people go.”
Maura, who said she puts one foot in front of the other and tries to have fun every day, added: “That’s what Conor did, that’s what I taught him to do...kindness, fun, simplicity, nature, I tried to teach him about the simple things in life.
“Conor has a cousin Leo and he has autism and Conor minded Leo all through the Covid [lockdown in early 2021] because Leona, my sister, had nobody to mind Leo.
“All the services had shut down.
“And he’d spend the whole day with him and he’d send pictures of him and Leo to his girlfriend saying ‘Bros’.
“That service is gone too,” she said her voice quivering with emotion.
“They are the values that were passed on to Conor and that’s why he was so loved because he was such fun and he was kind.
Maura, who praised Gary’s heroic efforts to save her son, said: “Absolutely, it is a comfort to me that he didn’t suffer and I kind of knew it already from speaking to the boys.
“They were all like brothers.”
