The young man who died in a drowning incident off the Ardmore coast has been named locally as Cian Nugent from Old Parish.
The 21-year-old UCC engineering student was swimming with friends when three of them got into difficulty at Whiting Bay yesterday (Friday) afternoon.
Emergency services, including Gardaí and Rescue 117, responded to reports that a number of individuals had got into difficulty while swimming at approximately 1.30pm.
The Coast Guard removed three people from the water.
Mr Nugent was taken by air ambulance to Cork University Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Rescue 117 responded to the incident.
Local Fianna Fáil Councillor in Ardmore Tom Cronin paid tribute to the response of the emergency services at the scene.
"There's a lot of shock and sadness that a life was lost in what we would consider a fairly safe area," he told WLR News.
"Our sincere sympathies go out to the young man's family and his friends."
He added: "The emergency services have to get great credit for their response."
In a statement, UCC said: "We would like to extend its deepest sympathies to the family of Cian Nugent. UCC will support his family, friends, and classmates at this difficult time."
Meanwhile, Youghal RNLI said: "We in Youghal RNLI wish to extend our sincere sympathies to the family and friends of the man who died in yesterday’s swimming tragedy in Whiting Bay. Our volunteer lifeboat crew were requested to launch our inshore lifeboat yesterday afternoon following a request by the Irish Coast Guard and we responded to the incident. We would like to compliment and thank our fantastic crew/shore crew and everyone else involved. There was a multi-agency response for this call, and we would like to acknowledge and thank our colleagues from Rescue 117 in Waterford, Youghal and Ardmore Coast Guard and the National Ambulance Service who were also involved."
