Broadcaster Joe Little recalls dad’s time in hospice - 'he cried before he said his last goodbyes to them'

RTÉ broadcaster Joe Little has recalled how his father wept as he prepared to tell the youngest of his 10 children, aged five, that he had to go to hospital and would not be coming home for Christmas.

“As the younger ones came to his room at home, he cried, before he said his last goodbyes to them,” said Mr Little. “He was 51 and had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and I was a student at the time. The youngest, who was a special needs child, was just five. I was with him when he spoke of how he had to break the news to my younger siblings that he would not be coming home for Christmas.”

Mr Little spoke of his father’s death as he launched a book on the history of Milford Hospice in Limerick, A Journey of Hope, written by Sr Brigid Finucane of the Little Company of Mary who set up the hospice.