Minister unhappy with delayed return of nephew’s body

DEFENCE Minister Willie O’Dea, mourning the loss of a nephew in a drowning tragedy, said his family’s grief was being compounded by the delay in the release of the body by the Spanish authorities.

Basil Bourke, 21, from Hospital, Co Limerick, went missing from a disco boat on the island resort of Ibiza where he was holidaying with friends.

An only son, his mother Mary is a sister of Mr O’Dea. Mrs Bourke and her husband John have two older daughters, Caroline, who works with Reuters in London, and Lillian who is a teacher.

The alert was raised at around 4am on Tuesday.

Mr O’Dea said he was not impressed at the manner in which the Spanish authorities are dealing with having the remains returned to the family.

He said: “They seem to have a huge amount of bureaucracy and had to get some official to come back from holiday to sign some papers. It doesn’t help a bereaved family. I advised my sister and her husband against going out there.”

He recalled learning of the tragedy as he headed for an evening out at the Galway races where he had arranged to meet trainer, Dermot Weld a friend of his.

He said: “I was about 20 miles from Galway when I got a call on my mobile from Superintendent Jim Browne of Bruff. Jim is a great friend and has been for years. He said he had some bad news. I just told my driver to pull over. It was just so hard to take it in. My young nephew was a fine young lad with everything to live for.

“I wouldn’t like to see anybody go through what the family are going through at the moment. The wait to get the body home from Spain. The fact that we do not have him home makes it all the harder,” Mr O’Dea said.