Noah Peter Donohoe was a 14 year old schoolboy from Belfast, Northern Ireland, whose disappearance and death in June 2020 became one of the most closely followed cases in recent Northern Irish history. Born on 25 November 2005 in Strabane, County Tyrone, he was the only son of Fiona Donohoe and Emmanuel Djakpa, and he grew up with his mother in south Belfast. He was a pupil at St Malachy's College, where friends later described him as "the smartest kid" and said "everyone liked him". His mother told his inquest that he had a "love of books and learning" and called him "an upbeat, positive, beautiful, young gent who embraced anything that came his way with bright enthusiasm."
On Sunday 21 June 2020, during the Covid lockdown period, Noah left his home on Fitzroy Avenue at about 5:40 pm, telling his mother he was cycling to Cavehill in north Belfast to meet friends. CCTV later traced him through south Belfast and the city centre and into north Belfast. Along the way he became separated from his rucksack, phone and other belongings, and he was seen falling from his bicycle near the junction of North Queen Street and York Road before getting up and riding on. The last confirmed sighting, at about 6:08 pm, captured him on Northwood Drive. By then he was no longer clothed, and footage showed him leaving his bicycle and walking towards a stream behind a nearby house. That stream led to the gated entrance of a storm drain culvert on land owned by the Department for Infrastructure. The entrance was covered by a metal grille that was not padlocked.
Fiona Donohoe reported her son missing at about 9:44 pm that night. A large search followed, involving the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the Community Rescue Service and hundreds of volunteers. On 27 June 2020, six days later, Noah's body was recovered from the storm drain in north Belfast, more than 600 metres downstream of the culvert entrance. A post mortem examination found that he had drowned. Because of Covid restrictions, only ten people were allowed at his private Requiem Mass at St Patrick's Church, Belfast, on 1 July 2020, where his mother's tribute described him as "a beautiful soul with a beautiful mind".
In the years that followed, Fiona Donohoe led a sustained public campaign for answers about how her son died and how the police investigation was handled. Supporters, including a group known as Noah's Army, held vigils, rallies and marches in Belfast and Strabane, and in 2022 Belfast City Council agreed to name the Lagan Gateway bridge in south Belfast the Noah Donohoe Bridge after more than 1,000 submissions supported the idea. His mother also set up The Noah Donohoe Foundation in his memory through the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland.
The long delayed inquest opened at Belfast Coroner's Court on 22 January 2026 before the coroner Mr Justice Rooney and a jury of nine men and two women. Over many months the jury heard from Noah's friends, eyewitnesses, police officers, pathologists, toxicologists, hydrologists and mental health specialists. Pathologists found no evidence of third party involvement, and toxicology tests found no drugs or alcohol. Specialists said they could not explain the change in his behaviour that day, but agreed there was no evidence of an acute mental illness or of any intention to take his own life. One expert called it "a puzzling, bizarre event."
On 15 September 2026, after deliberations interrupted by a summer adjournment, the jury delivered a unanimous narrative verdict. It found that Noah died in the water tunnel between 7 pm and midnight on 21 June 2020, the same day he went missing, and that there was insufficient evidence to explain his behaviour after he left home. The jury found it possible, though not probable, that failings by the Department for Infrastructure contributed to his death, because the culvert entrance had not been identified as somewhere the public could reach, carried no warning signs, and was fitted with a debris screen rather than a security screen. Jurors also identified 13 later failings, most of them by the PSNI, that affected the inquest's ability to reach conclusions, while finding that police errors did not contribute to his death. Further hearings on whether the coroner should issue a report to prevent future deaths continued into November 2026.
Noah is remembered by his family and by many people across Northern Ireland as a bright, kind and curious boy whose death prompted lasting questions about public safety and the duty of public bodies to the families they serve.
From social media
6Posts by Noah, and posts about them, kept here so they are not lost.