Man’s grief over grave blunder

A GRIEVING widower spoke of his anguish yesterday after local authority grave diggers buried his wife in the wrong plot.

Noel Donovan from Cobh in Co Cork pleaded with Cobh Town Council to resolve the drawn-out legal process to correct the mistake and finally let his wife rest in peace — two years after her death.

Noel said he has still not properly grieved for Trina because of the council blunder.

He visited her graveside in the town’s Old Church Cemetery on Sunday to mark the second anniversary of her death.

But as he stood in silent prayer, he was consumed by the legal process to resolve the ownership of the plot.

Trina died in Cork University Hospital on June 3 2005 after a battle with cancer.

His undertaker requested a plot in the urban council-managed cemetery and looked after all the funeral arrangements.

He spoke yesterday of the shock he felt when six weeks after the burial, the council contacted him to tell him his wife had been buried in an empty plot owned by another family.

“Soon afterwards the real panic started to set in,” he said.

“There was no contact from the council. And I had to decide whether to tell my family about the mix-up or not.

“I told my kids, Brian, 23, and Catherine, 18, and then Trina’s family and the same question kept being asked: ‘Will they have to dig up their mam and sister again?’

“I spent endless days and nights at my wife’s grave. Every time I entered the cemetery my heart would race and I was worried for fear that someone would try to remove her body.

“I even had to drive there some nights at 3am or 4am to try and protect my wife’s grave.”

Cobh Town Clerk Páraig Lynch confirmed yesterday that human error was to blame for the burial of Ms Donovan’s remains in the wrong plot.

He said the council has apologised to all parties involved and has been trying to resolve the issue.

But he assured that the legal ownership of the plot has now been transferred to Mr Donovan.