County Kerry’s new coroner confronts the mysteries behind sudden death in rural Ireland
The KerrymanAisling Quilter greets me with an apology. A phone call delayed her and she mentions the phone may ring again during our interview.
The County Kerry coroner sits in the corner office of a handsome brick building on Tralee’s Ashe Street, overlooking the 1835 limestone courthouse. In this historic office, republican and politician Austin Stack started his legal career as a teenage law clerk in the 1890s. Today, it is where Ms Quilter deciphers the mystery of Kerry’s sudden deaths.
Day or night, a call may come from a garda, doctor or funeral director with news of death. As coroner, it is Ms Quilter’s job to determine the cause of an unexpected loss.
“I'm always in that role,” she says. “If my phone rings, the door closes and I just try to imagine, who's ringing me? From where? What kind of situation are they in? And I'm in work mode straight away.”
Quilter is the first coroner for the whole county, a position created by the Minister of Justice in December by joining two districts. The Beaufort native had previously covered the south and east district since 2017.
As such, she is accustomed to the seasons of death. Cases increase with flu season and short days in winter. She estimates Kerry has at least 800 cases a year. “Minimum,” she says. “I have about 515 cases reported to me as of five minutes ago.”
If the cause is clear, a death certificate is immediately issued. If not, a postmortem is ordered. If the death is found to be from an unnatural cause, an inquest is held.
When Ms Quilter covered the south and east district, about ten per cent went to inquest.
Whenever possible, she goes to the scene after a call comes in. Then, it is her job to help families find answers after unexpected loss.
Ms Quilter came to the role through her work as a Tralee solicitor, attending coroner’s inquests. She wanted to better understand medical terminology and took a course on forensic medical science. Each lecture focused on a different type of death, like drowning, burning or stabbing.
Ms Quilter was spellbound. “I suppose, it's the trying to find answers for people.”
Since becoming a coroner in 2017, the most notable change is an increase in isolation and self-harm amongst the elderly. Additionally, extended isolation has led to incidents where people have not been found for days.
The shadow of the pandemic is still with us, notes Ms Quilter.
“Covid brought about a problem in an area that wasn't there before. The whole age dynamic has changed. I see it a lot now amongst people who are just so unsure of travelling or being in closed spaces. It's had a huge impact psychologically in the community.”
As coroner, Ms Quilter hopes to change this. For about seven years now, an observatory for Kerry and Cork has tracked data including the timings, locations and methods of these deaths, so similar cases can be prevented.
“It's a very unspoken issue in Ireland. So highlighting it brought that conversation into the public, can we do anything? Can we make changes?”
Reformation of the national coroner service is under discussion at the Department of Justice, with legislative changes planned for 2025. These will include the appointment of an independent chief coroner, a move Ms Quilter supports. Other changes include the amalgamation of district, as seen in Kerry.
For Ms Quilter, the biggest challenge is a shortage of pathologists. Two Kerry pathologists retired last year and three now serve Kerry and Cork. Postmortem reports can take six to eight months and any delay is painful for the family. This is heightened when funeral arrangements are expected to be immediate.
“It's not a society like England, where they wait for weeks or months to deal with the funeral,” says Ms Quilter. “It usually happens quite quickly in Ireland. It's not part of our custom and culture to have that interlude of waiting.”
She would like Munster to have a perinatal pathologist, who performs postmortems for infants. Currently, if an infant dies outside of hospital, the postmortem is in Dublin.
“Every death is a loss but your heart would especially break for some families and situations,” she says. “You can't just put down the pen and walk away from it, close the door and pretend it didn't happen.”
For Ms Quilter, it is a privileged responsibility.
“I feel like I’ve been in this role for such a long time, it’s become second nature. It’s just an extension now of who I am.”
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, call Alone on 0818 222 024 or see alone.ie . You can also call Samaritans on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.ie; or call Pieta on Freephone 1800 247 247 or text HELP to 51444