Bereaved family’s faith an ‘immense comfort’ following gas death

THE family of hotel gas leak victim Miriam Reidy has drawn “immense comfort” from their faith following their daughter’s death a year ago.

Bank worker Miriam, 35, died of acute carbon monoxide poisoning in her hotel room after attending a cousin’s hen night in Kinsale, Co Cork, on January 9, 2010.

At the weekend, as hundreds of mourners celebrated Miriam’s life at a memorial Mass near the family home in Ballyhahill, Co Limerick, parish priest Fr Gerard O’Leary said the close-knit family — including parents John and Josie Reidy and Miriam’s boyfriend Pio Boyle — had found the inner strength to move on with their lives.

Fr O’Leary, who has had frequent private meetings with the family, said they had drawn “immense comfort” over a difficult year from the power of prayer.

However, he said it had been a particularly difficult year for Miriam’s older sister, Patricia Russell, who was discovered unconscious next to her sister’s body in the hotel room.

Patricia suffered further heartache just days later, when doctors at the hospital told her she was not well enough to join her parents and older sister Siobhan for the full funeral service for Miriam.

Speaking shortly before Saturday’s remembrance Mass at the Church of the Visitation, Ballyhahill, Fr O’Leary said: “The Reidys are a very, very religious family and their faith has helped ease the huge burden they’ve carried since Miriam’s death.

“It was such a terrible tragedy and a devastating loss, but their faith in God has remained strong and thankfully it’s helped them cope. They see the Mass as a celebration of their life and although they will always cherish her memory and mourn her passing, they fell that life must go on. So everyone is now putting their best foot forward.

“It’s been very difficult for Patricia and I’ve had a number of meetings with her over the past 12 months, but she’s now doing very well.”

During the Mass, it was recalled how Miriam’s final night had been full of fun and laughter as she enjoyed a night out as part of a 30-strong hen party.

But that last evening of joy soon turned to one of unimaginable pain shortly after the Reidy sisters retired to bed at 1am.

It was the then bride-to-be, nurse Marie Reidy, who made the grim discovery in room 113 of the Trident Hotel in the centre of Kinsale town the following day and desperately performed CPR on her two cousins.

Although a full inquest into Miriam’s death has yet to take place, a state pathologist told a preliminary hearing last June that she believed Miriam died from massive levels of carbon monoxide gas.

Subsequent tests found she had a 57% blood saturation rate for carbon monoxide — significantly higher than the fatal 40% saturation level.

The inquest has been deferred pending the completion of separate probes by the Health and Safety Authority and the gardaí.

Last month, Cork coroner Frank O’Connell said that he would be pursuing an update on the progress of the ongoing investigations.