Tullamore man died after heavy drinking session

A Tullamore man died in his sleep after an all-day drinking session in England late last year, an inquest heard this week. Tullamore native Ciaran Mulligan, of Albert Road in Skegness, Lincolnshire, had spent the night in December last drinking in the Edgefield Lodge Hotel in Kenton, Newcastle upon Tyne, with his new girlfriend, Julia Lewis. In a statement read at the Newcastle inquest by investigating officer Mark Anastasi, Miss Lewis said: “He said he had been out with friends drinking and said to come for a drink that evening.” She had warned the father-of-one about his drinking as he knocked back six shots of Jack Daniels and a pint of lager. Mr Mulligan, 41, had earlier told fellow drinkers he could handle 20 pints and a bottle of spirits a day. Miss Lewis said: “I recall Ciaran saying to the bar man I will race you ... I told him to pack it in.” Mr Mulligan leaned on four fellow drinkers as he was helped upstairs to a hotel room after he started to fall asleep. One of the four took a photo of him as he lay sprawled across the hotel bed, hoping to embarrass him with the picture the following morning. Bar manager Kenneth Somerville denied any drinking competition had taken place. He told the inquest: “He looked all right to me. It came upon him quite suddenly.” His girlfriend screamed when she discovered Mr Mulligan in a pool of blood and vomit, the inquest heard. Mr Somerville said he ran to the bedroom to find Mr Mulligan in a pool of vomit. He said: “I could see he was going blue.” Paramedics arrived and took Mr Mulligan to Newcastle General Hospital, but he was dead by 2am the next morning. After the post-mortem, Mr Mulligan’s body was returned to Tullamore for cremation. Assistant deputy coroner Karen Dilks recorded that Mr Mulligan’s death was due to acute alcohol toxicity, concluding he died of misadventure. Home Office pathologist Dr Jennifer Hamilton found Mr Mulligan had 452 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his system when he died. That is more than five-and-a-half times the legal drink-dive limit in England. Detective Chief Inspector Mark Anastasi said: “Alcohol intoxication overcame him quite quickly and it is believed to be due to the strength of the shots.” Mr Mulligan, unemployed, had been in a relationship with Miss Lewis for two weeks when he died. His parents from Tullamore were at the inquest. Mr Mulligan, told Mrs Dilks: “We were with him six days prior to his death and he was very fit and very strong.”