![\"Sean](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/046ae895-00f8-42af-8445-913e81fca24a.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Sean Keaney (Rip.ie)<\/p>\n
![\"Whitsunday](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/629ff902-8add-4bad-8efa-934df47e8a36.jpg\")
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Whitsunday Island, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia.<\/p>\n
![\"thumbnail:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767371890_755_046ae895-00f8-42af-8445-913e81fca24a.jpg\")
![\"thumbnail:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767371890_954_629ff902-8add-4bad-8efa-934df47e8a36.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Sean Keaney (35) from Ballinagh, Co. Cavan, has been identified locally as the Irish man who tragically drowned at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.<\/p>\n
Emergency services recovered Mr Keaney\u2019s body from the water at Whitehaven Beach at 11am on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n
Having lived in the UK for several years, he is the third person reported to have drowned at New South Wales beaches in recent days.<\/p>\n
The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed it is providing consular assistance to the family.<\/p>\n
His death notice states that he died \u201csuddenly following a tragic accident\u201d and that he is survived by his mother, Bridie; his sisters, Cathriona, Fiona, Breda, and Katie; and his brothers, Matt, Cathal, and Thomas. He was predeceased by his father, Charlie.<\/p>\n
In a tribute posted online, Mr. Keaney\u2019s London GAA club, Tara GFC, for whom he played, said he had a smile \u201cthat could light up a room and a laugh that could warm your heart\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter transferring from Crosserlough GFC in Cavan to Tara GFC, Sean spent an incredible four years with our club, leaving a lasting impact on everyone he met,\u201d the club said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were incredibly lucky to have Sean by our side as we celebrated last year\u2019s and this year\u2019s Championship victories, as well as the All Britain titles. A man always found on the dance floor, with a smile that could light up a room and a laugh that could warm your heart, Sean will be unbelievably missed by us all.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sean Keaney (Rip.ie)<\/p>\n
Today’s News in 90 Seconds , Friday Januaray 2, 2026. <\/p>\n
The club has set up a Gofundme page to help with the cost of repatriating Mr Keaney\u2019s remains home in association with the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust.<\/p>\n
Already almost \u20ac10,000 of the \u20ac16,000 has been raised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean Keaney (Rip.ie) Whitsunday Island, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia. Sean Keaney (35) from Ballinagh, Co. Cavan, has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,23,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-263689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latest-news-ticker","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-world","22":"tag-world-news","23":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115826491713726831","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}