Friends gather to bury Galway man who died in UK

Old school friends paid a poignant tribute to one of their own.

The men, in their 70s and 80s, joined with the rest of the community of Glinsk on the Galway-Roscommon border in honouring Sean Parker, 79.

The Co Galway native had died earlier this year at a nursing home in Medway, Kent, but was facing a burial in an unmarked grave as he had no family or friends to claim him.

A major publicity campaign instigated by Medway Council in Kent led to extensive research in Co Galway and the joint effort traced Sean’s roots back to Glinsk.

His funeral Mass at St Michael’s Church in Glinsk yesterday heard that he had been born in nearby Dunmore, but lived with his family in Glinsk and he attended the local national school between 1941 and 1946.

The tragic death of his mother in 1945 eventually led to the family moving to Dublin and Sean later ended up in London. Much of his life was spent on the streets as he fell on hard times and he never returned to his Co Galway home.

Paul Edwards, Medway Council’s bereavement and registration services manager, thanked everyone involved in the successful search and repatriation and said he regretted not being able to attend the funeral.

Sean was buried within yards of his mother’s grave at Ballinakill cemetery.