Family of man killed in suspected explosion at Stryker plant dismayed at delay of inquest

Seán McCárthaigh

The family of a Cork man who suffered fatal injuries after a suspected explosion at a Cork factory almost three years ago have expressed dismay at delays in getting answers to how he died following another adjournment of an inquest into his death.

John Murphy (41), a married father from Condonstown, Watergrasshill, Co Cork, sustained extensive burns after a suspected explosion at the Stryker plant in Carrigtwohill, Co Cork, on April 18th 2023.

Murphy was working at the time for a facilities management company, Apelona, on contract with Stryker, a US medical device manufacturer.

He died almost two months later on June 9th 2023, in the specialist burns unit in St James’s Hospital in Dublin where he had been transferred after originally being treated at Cork University Hospital for 24 hours.

At a brief sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Thursday, an inquest into Mr Murphy’s death heard the Health and Safety Authority was still awaiting directions from the DPP on whether any criminal prosecution would arise from the circumstances of his death.

A file on the HSA’s investigation was submitted to the Office of the DPP in October.

HSA inspector, Trevor Ryan-Nesbitt, applied for a six-month adjournment of the inquest to await a direction from the DPP.

A solicitor for the deceased’s relatives, Ernest Cantillon, replied that Murphy’s family were very concerned about delays in the case, although he acknowledged that the coroner’s hands were “tied” in progressing the matter.

Cantillon pointed out that Mr Murphy’s parents, Seán and Eileen, had travelled from Cork for the hearing with other family members in seeking to find justice for their son.

Requesting that the adjournment be limited to three months, he asked the HSA as well as coroner Clare Keane to impress on the DPP their concerns over delays as they were causing distress for the family.

Dr Keane said she completely empathised with Murphy’s relatives and acknowledged how traumatic the process was for them.

She stated she would grant the adjournment for a six-month period but said she would return the matter for listing sooner if the HSA received a direction back from the DPP before then.

The coroner granted the HSA’s application and set August 13th as the date for the next mention of the inquest.

Following the hearing, the deceased’s mother, Eileen, said they were facing “another six months of waiting and suffering.”

“All we are looking for are answers as to the circumstances of the accident that led to John’s death,” said Ms Murphy.

She added: “As a family we need answers to be able to move forward. We have no closure. We are nearly three years waiting for answers and we don’t want to be still waiting for them at John’s fourth, fifth and indefinite anniversaries.”

Her husband, Seán, observed: “John’s death shattered a critical link in our family chain. We don’t celebrate family events anymore.

"We just mark them for the sake of it. There is a huge hole left in our family with the loss of John.”

The deceased’s sister, Helena Browne, said her brother was “the glue of our family.”

“He was the one who kept everyone else from getting tangled up in life. No family should have to endure what we have suffered. John went out to work that day and never came home,” said Browne.

She added: “We remain unable to grieve for our loss of John until such time as we know the truth of what occurred.”

The family said the HSA investigation into John’s death highlighted the crucial importance of workplace health and safety standards, and they were now “anxiously awaiting the decision of the DPP.”

The deceased, who was working on the roof of the Stryker plant at the time of the fatal incident, suffered third-degree burns across 75 per cent of his body.

Murphy was able to make it down off the roof but became unresponsive a short time later and never regained consciousness before his death. Another work colleague was also injured in the same incident.

In March 2024, Mr Murphy’s family initiated High Court proceedings against Stryker Ireland Limited and Apleona Ireland Limited over his death.

A High Court judge also granted their application to have a legal representative attend an engineering inspection of the factory.

Last year, SIPTU expressed “grave health and safety concerns” about Stryker’s operations in Cork following a fire at one of its facilities, which the trade union claimed highlighted “a deeply troubling pattern over a number of years at the Stryker plants in Carrigtwohill.”

The company, which began operations in Ireland in 1998, now employs 4,100 staff across six locations in Cork.