SWEPT TO DEATH

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 198, 19 May 1936, Page 16

SWEPT TO DEATH

Tree Struck While Riding Swept from the saddle of a galloping horse by an overhanging bough, Mr. Brian De Valera, the 20-year-old son of Mr. Eamonn De Valera, President of the Irish Free State Executive Council, was the victim of an unusual fatality in Phoenix Park, Dublin, recently. He was out riding at the time with a relative, Dr. Lawrence Flanagan, but as the latter had gone on ahead he was unaware for some moments that an accident had happened. “Brian and I galloped over one stretch whenever we rode in the park,” Dr. Flanagan stated afterwards. "When I looked round at the end of the stretch I found Brian's horse galloping riderless after me. "Further back 1 could see a figure on the ground with a man kneeling beside it. I turned my horse and. galloping back, found Brian semii-con-scicus and bleeding profusely from the bead.” A motor-ear took the injured young man lo the Mater Hospital, where it was found he had received an injury to the brain. His father and mother were called to the hospital, and he was then transferred to an adjoining private nursing home. The parents were present when lie died. Mr. De Valera was led away in tears from his son's bedside. The father received many messages of sympathy, including one from the King sent through Mr. J. Dulanty, High Commissioner in London for the Irish Free State. At the inquest the jury returned a verdict that the young man died from respiratory failure, following a fracture of tlie base of the skull, and internal haemorrhage caused by colliding with a tree. The funeral took place at Glasnevin Cemetery. Dublin, after Requiem Mass at tlie Church of the Assumption, in Booterstown. Hundreds of cars joined in the funeral procession through the six miles of streets to the cemetery, and thousands of people stood round the church. Among those who sent messages of sympathy was the Emperor of Ethiopia. Mr. Brian De Valera was the fourth of five sons, and had two sisters. He was in his second year as a mechanical engineering student at University College, Dublin. He displayed great ability nt sports and games, but riding was his chief recreation.