Tom ‘has gone up to heaven to fix all the leaks’

A husband and father was laid to rest at the weekend following his death from legionnaires’ disease.

Tom Keane, who retired recently as a plumber with Limerick City Council, died last Wednesday, after a month-long battle.

Mr Keane caught the disease when he and his wife Olive went for a meal in a hotel in Chicago.

They had travelled to the US to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary and to visit their son Shane.

Mr Keane’s other son, Fr Richard Keane, presided at his father’s funeral Mass in Our Lady Queen of Peace, Janesboro, Limerick where 200 mourners attended, including 32 priests.

Fr Keane told mourners: “As a priest, over the last 10 years, I have presided over many funerals, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be presiding at my father’s funeral Mass this year.”

He described his late father as a someone “who lived for his family”.

Speaking of the fateful trip to America, Fr Keane said: “They had a marvellous holiday, but, tragically my dad picked up legionnaires’ disease.

“He fell ill and came back home to Limerick and, despite the excellent efforts of the staff at the Regional Hospital, my dad just didn’t respond to treatment.”

The congregation applauded as Fr Keane concluded: “A friend of my father said a lovely joke to me, he said: ‘We’ll almost be guaranteed a fabulous summer next year in Ireland, because the best plumber in Ireland has gone up to heaven to fix all the leaks’.”