Renovations at Swinford Courthouse mean that inquests won’t be held there until December, at the earliest.
The Coroner for Mayo, Patrick O’Connor has decided that in the meantime all inquests relating to his jurisdiction will be transferred to Castlebar Courthouse.
The first of those hearings was heard in Castlebar today.
Coroner O’Connor indicated that the renovations at the Swinford venue involve repairs to the floor infrastructure and the work will likely take six weeks.
Mr. O’Connor thanked the Mayo Courts Service for making Castlebar courthouse available for inquests at a time of staff shortages within the service.
He thanked Peter Mooney, former Manager of the Courts Service, for all his assistance to him as coroner over the years. Mr. Mooney recently moved to new employment.
Today, Mr. O’Connor described his departure as a huge loss to the local courts service stating that he had the perfect temperament for his line of work.
