The State Pathologist is due to arrive in Galway today to carry out a postmortem on the body of the 19-year-old man taken from Galway docks yesterday afternoon.
Senior gardaí have confirmed that they have initiated a full inquiry into the circumstances of the death of Ronan Halloran from Shrule, on the Mayo-Galway border, who was last seen alive in the early hours of Sunday.
Mr Halloran had been on a night out in Galway city with a male friend on Saturday and they are understood to have been at the nightclub in the Radisson Hotel before proceeding to Eyre Square. However, the two men got separated.
Gardaí are understood to be investigating reports that the dead man may have been involved in a disturbance in Eyre Square with a number of other people.
On Monday morning gardaí, the lifeboat service, local sub-aqua divers and the harbour authorities co-ordinated a search of the docks area leading to the recovery of Mr Halloran's body from the docks at about lunchtime that day.
The body was removed to hospital for a preliminary examination and a full Garda investigation headed by Insp Tony O'Donnell resulted in the calling in of the State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy.
Gardaí are anxious to speak to anyone who may have seen Mr Halloran in the early hours of Sunday morning last either in the Eyre Square area, the docks area or on any of the routes linking those areas.
Mr Halloran has been described as 6ft 1in tall, of strong build, with short black hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a black V-neck T-shirt with narrow pink horizontal stripes, cream-coloured trousers and brown shoes.
Witnesses are asked to contact gardaí on 091-538000.
