Kevin Brendan Gilmore, from Alderbrook Gardens in the town, was taken from the river around 8pm when Belfast Coastguard received a request for assistance from Coleraine police.

A police spokesman said that at approximately 8.15pm last Friday police received a report of a 29-year-old man in the water at the Cutts at Coleraine.

"He was rescued and taken to hospital where he later died. The death is not being treated as suspicious."

A local Coastguard team also attended the scene and Coastguard Station Officer Chris Little said: "The swimmer was recovered by a RHIB from Bann Rescue Service and handed over to a Coastguard team waiting at Christie Park.

"He was given immediate first aid and rushed by ambulance paramedics to the Causeway Hospital where he was later pronounced dead."

Mr Gilmore's funeral took place this morning (Tuesday) in St John's Church in Coleraine with burial in the adjoining churchyard. He is survived by his mother Maureen, brothers Seamus, Mark and Barry and sisters Connie, Rhonda and Alma.

Known locally as 'Shaggy', Mr Gilmore was given a suspended sentence in May this year for withholding information about the 2006 murder of Coleraine man Paddy Fleming.

He gave evidence which helped to put Ballymena man Desmond Heaney behind bars for the murder of Mr Fleming.