Irish Student Dies After Kayaking Incident Near Washington DC

19th September 2023

Afloat.ie Team

Local police near the scene of the tragic incident on the Potomac River on Sunday 17 September Credit: Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service

A young student from Ireland has died after a kayaking incident near Washington DC, as RTÉ News reports.

TCD English Studies undergraduate Ella Mills had only recently relocated to New York as an exchange student at Columbia University.

She was on a trip with Columbia’s Whitewater Kayaking Club when the tragedy occurred on the Potomac River on Sunday (17 September).

Among those paying condolences was Tánaiste Micheál Martin, in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, who said the president of Columbia University related the “shocking devastation” among its students, faculty and staff.

Tanaiste Micheál Martin gives his condolences following the death of an Irish student in a kayaking accident in the US pic.twitter.com/09dWYqZt44
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) September 19, 2023

RTÉ News has more on the story HERE.

Published in Kayaking

Tagged under

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.