Corbett children set for Irish return

“The kids are coming home” — Marian Fitzpatrick sang out the message the country had waited for, shortly after she got word from North Carolina that her grandchildren, Jack, 10, and Sarah, 8, were to be brought back to Ireland following a tortuous custody battle.

A court decision last Monday, giving custody of the children to Jason Corbett’s sister, Tracey Lynch, and her husband David, was approved by a judge yesterday.

Mr Corbett died on August 2 from a head wound in what police described as a “domestic disturbance”.

Molly Martens, 31, stepmother of the children, and her father, a retired FBI agent, are the only people to have been questioned regarding the violent death.

Ms Martens met Mr Corbett when she came to Limerick in 2008 to act as au pair to the children after his wife, Mags, died suddenly from an asthma attack.

As plans were being made last night for the family to return to Limerick, Ms Fitzpatrick, mother of Mags and grandmother of the children, speaking from her home in Pallaskenry, said: “I am just after a hip operation, but I feel like jumping with joy, if I could.

"Thank God it’s all over. I got the call at around six o’clock.

“Jason’s tragic death has changed the lives of John and Rita [Corbett; Jason’s parents], but the fact they can now see their grandchildren grow up in Limerick where their parents, Mags and Jason, will have their final resting place together in Castlemungret cemetery, will be a great relief as they grieve. It will be a great consolation.”

It is expected that funeral arrangements will be finalised today. Mr Corbett’s mahogany casket was brought back last week with the assistance of an Irish couple in New York, who established a fund for the repatriation of bodies to Ireland.

The removal will take place to Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Janesboro, Limerick, on Sunday or Monday evening, with the funeral Mass the next day.

The Mass will be celebrated by Fr Pat O’Sullivan, PP, Our Lady Queen of Peace, who has been in regular contact with John and Rita Corbett. Mr Corbett will be laid to rest in Castlemungret cemetery alongside the grave of first wife Mags.

In his ruling, Davidson County Clerk of Superior Courts Brian Shipwash said he had been asked to make a decision in the lives of two incredibly precious children who have had to deal with the deaths of both their natural parents.

He said: “To have peace with my decision, I removed outside influencing factors and evaluated the purity of what would be in the children’s best interest in a positive, loving, and supportive environment, to develop and mature.

“Jack and Sarah Corbett are citizens of Ireland. The parents of Sarah and Jack, I am almost certain, would want their children raised in the land of their origin where the culture, religion, customs, and their extended family on both sides are prepared to nurture them in a manner that would be in the children’s best interest.

“The named guardians, can provide that, so after much legal research, deliberation, thought, and prayer, these children will return to Ireland.”