UPDATE: Gardai confirm body discovered was that of Damien Donoghue

The body recovered from the River Shannon yesterday (Thursday) evening has been identified as that of missing man Damien Donoghue, gardai have confirmed.

Tyrrellspass native, Damien, had been missing from his home in Mullingar since the early hours of Sunday morning and had last been seen in Athlone.

His body was recovered from the River Shannon between the town bridge and the white bridge at about 5.30pm yesterday.

Gardai, the Coastguard Helicopter, a number of sub aqua clubs and numerous volunteers were involved in the search for Mr Donoghue.

Gardai have thanked all those involved in the search effort in recent days.

'We would like to thank the people for their response. People in his home village, from Mullingar and Athlone voluntarily assisted us over the past few days and searched large areas that we couldn't,' a Garda spokesperson said.