Family puts differences to one side for Dean’s removal

The parents of Dean Fitzpatrick put aside their differences yesterday for the removal of their son, who died tragically outside his mother’s apartment in Dublin last month.

However, the divisions which have beset Dean’s family since the disappearance of his younger sister, Amy, in Spain five years ago, and which intensified following his death on May 26, were still evident.

Dean’s father Christopher and his estranged wife Audrey sat in different rows of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Donaghmede, Dublin.

The family also asked mourners not to participate in the usual tradition of filing past the deceased’s relatives to pay their sympathy.

Dean’s coffin was carried into the church by six of his friends and placed next to a framed photograph of the 23-year-old at the foot of the altar.

Parish priest Fr Eoin McCrystal offered his sympathy to the Fitzpatrick family, recognising the trauma and great loss they were suffering.

Fr McCrystal said everyone was also conscious that it was the second major tragedy to affect Dean’s parents following the disappearance of Amy five years ago when aged 15.

Amy has been missing since New Year’s Day in 2008 when she failed to return to her home in the Costa del Sol in Spain where she lived with her mother and her mother’s partner, Dave Mahon.

Fr McCrystal said everyone’s thoughts and prayers were also with Amy at this time.

The chief mourners were Dean’s partner, Sarah O’Rourke, his parents, stepbrother Alex, and aunt Christine. The deceased man’s 18-month-old baby son, Leon, was being minded by other relatives.

A family row over the location of his burial sparked a High Court hearing last Friday. Original plans to hold Dean’s funeral on Friday were postponed after his father objected to his estranged wife’s plans to have their son buried in her family plot at Fingal Cemetery in Balgriffin.

However, Dean’s parents subsequently resolved their differences and agreed he could be buried in a new plot in the same cemetery. The court ordered that Dean’s body should be released to Ms O’Rourke after she gave an undertaking that the funeral would be conducted respectfully and any family differences would be set aside.

There was no sign of Mr Mahon at the removal. He had earlier stated that he would not attend Dean’s funeral.

Gardaí kept a watchful eye on yesterday’s proceedings from a discrete distance but the occasion passed without incident.

Dean’s coffin will be brought to Fingal Cemetery today for burial following Requiem Mass at 10am.