TWO IRISH MEN have lost their lives in tragic circumstances overseas over the long weekend.

A 43-year-old Dubliner was killed on the island of Dominica, where he worked as a hotel manager, while trying to foil a robbery there – while a 36-year-old man died after getting into difficulty while swimming on holiday in Portugal.

The 43-year-old, Joe Costello, was killed when he tried to intervene as burglars attacked the home of two friends who owned another hotel on the Caribbean island.

The Star said Costello, who had only moved to the island nine months ago, sustained a fatal injury to the head from a cutlass.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin is offering assistance to the man’s family.

Separately, a 36-year-old holidaymaker in the Portuguese resort of Albufeira died after getting into difficulty while going for an afternoon swim.

It is understood that the man had been on a boat trip to some caves near Albufeira with his wife and parents when he left the boat to take a swim in the sea at about noon on Saturday.

He then got into difficulty while in the water, and was pronounced dead later that afternoon after being rescued from the water and brought to a marina in Albufeira.

A spokesperson from the Department of Foreign Affairs said the man had an underlying heart condition, and that the Department was offering consular assistance through the embassy in Lisbon.

In a third unrelated incident, a 29-year-old Irishman was among 35 people injured in a bus accident in Cambodia.

The man, from Mallow in Co Cork, is in hospital in Phnom Penh and consular assistance is being provided through the embassy in Hanoi.