The fatal incident, involving a truck and a car, happened on the N20 in County Limerick the early hours of Wednesday | PICTURE: Brendan Gleeson
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25 Dec 2025
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25 Dec 2025
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An Irish Rail mechanical engineer used a 'unique' treasure map to find a missing diamond in a train's vent. The diamond had been missing for over two weeks.
Aisling Kavanagh was undertaking her regular commute back to Portlaoise from Heuston two weeks ago, when she inadvertently caught her hand in the vent beside her seat onboard the train.
Her engagement ring got stuck and when endeavouring to prize it out, the diamond from her solitaire engagement ring became dislodged and fell into the vent.
Feeling helpless, Aisling disembarked from the train at Portlaoise, where she was collected from the station by her husband, David.
Pictured: The diamond that had fallen from Ms Kavanagh's engagement ring
She was distraught about losing the stone from her engagement ring, which she was understandably very emotionally attached to. Figuring that the stone had gone through the vent and out onto the track, there was no hope of ever finding it again.
She told one of her colleagues at work, who happened to live next door to an Iarnród Éireann, employee, who works in the mechanical engineering section. He advised that the vent does not go straight out onto the track and all may not be lost.
Pictured: The vents that were taken apart by an Irish Rail worker in the hopes of finding the missing diamond.
He asked Aisling to draw a diagram of where she was sitting and which carriage she was on on which particular service. When that train was in for an examination last Thursday, he and his colleagues took apart the vent and lo and behold, out fell the diamond!
Pictured: The map that Aisling drew for her colleague's neighbour, who worked for Irish Rail.
“I was so upset when I lost the stone out of my engagement ring, I really thought it was gone forever," Aisling said after she found out that her diamond had been recovered.
"The amount of effort that these people went to reunite me with it has restored my faith in human kindness," she finished.
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