Portuguese Holiday Couple Had 'Three Beers'

Hospital blood test may hold the key to the mysterious reaction a few beers had for a Northern Ireland couple on holiday.

Eamon McGuckin, 34, and his wife Antoinette, 32, from Maghera, collapsed on Friday night after they allegedly got so drunk that they passed out while in charge of their three young children during a holiday in Portugal.

However, the couple, who are expected to appear before a judge today, are reported to be at their wits end about the incident, with Mrs McGuckin insisting she drank only three beers.

She has requested details of hospital blood tests because she was "very surprised" at her reaction.

It has also been reported today that friends and neighbours of the well-respected couple have rallied round to defend the pair's reputation.

One added: "They were tired, they woke up at around 4am - to travel to Portugal- then there was the flight.

"Then it was too hot - they are very red, they got a lot of sun. All this together could be the reason."

A local councillor has also defended the couple. SDLP Maghera Councillor Kate Lagan, who knows the parents, said Antionette McGuckin was sick and that was why an ambulance was called to their hotel.

She also said the hotel manager offered to look after the children while Eamon McGuckin took his wife to hospital and she can not understand why Portugese authorities took the action they did.

"Late last night I spoke to somebody close to the family and there's a very different picture emerging," she said.

"Even yesterday it was fairly obvious that there was something very strange about this, for example, how could you possibly go from escorting three children from a bar to being completely comatose in a hotel as suddenly as that.

"They went out to dinner at eight o'clock and they were back at 10."

Either way, when the pair returned to their hotel obviously incapable of looking after their children, hotel staff in Vilamoura on the Algarve called police.

They themselves were so bad as to have to be rushed to a health centre in nearby Loule while their children Adam, one, Amy, two, and Aaron, six, were temporarily taken into care at the Refugio Aboim Ascensao children's home in Faro.

The youngsters arrived at the home at 5am on Saturday and remained there until their parents went to collect them at noon, after the on-duty public attorney ruled they should be returned.

Police officers from Portugal's Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) arrived at the couple's hotel apartment yesterday evening with a bundle of paperwork and spent about 45 minutes in the flat.

The couple will now appear before a judge at the Family and Minors Court in Faro at 3pm today, although this does not necessarily mean they will face any charges.

Of course, taking place over the weekend of the first anniversary of the disappearance of Madeline McCann from her Portuguese holiday apartment as their parents eat a meal with friends nearby, has added considerable significance to the incident.

(BMcC/NS)