Gardaí prepare file for coroner following tragic death of Sinéad O’Connor's son Shane
A CCTV image of Shane O'Connor that was released after gardaí issued a missing persons appeal. His body was found by gardaí near Bray, Co Wicklow, before midnight on Friday. Picture: An Garda Síochána
Gardaí are preparing an investigation file for the coroner on the tragic death of the teenage son of musicians Sinéad O’Connor and Donal Lunny.
The body of Shane O’Connor was found by gardaí near Bray, Co Wicklow, before midnight on Friday, more than a day after gardaí issued a missing person’s appeal for the 17-year-old.
Garda HQ today confirmed that following the discovery that “an investigation file is being conducted for the coroner”.
In their appeal last Friday, gardaí expressed “concern for Shane’s welfare”.
It had been the third time gardaí had conducted a missing person’s appeal for the boy in the last three years.
Sinéad O’Connor posted a series of tweets from her account, Sinead The 1 And Only, since her son disappeared from where he was living in Newbridge, Co Kildare, last Thursday.
Following the grim discovery of his body before midnight on Friday, the Irish singer tweeted: “My beautiful son, Nevi’im Nesta Ali Shane O’Connor, the very light of my life, decided to end his earthly struggle today and is now with God. May he rest in peace and may no one follow his example. My baby. I love you so much. Please be at peace.”
Posting a Bob Marley video, she tweeted: “This is for my Shaney.
"The light of my life. The lamp of my soul. My blue-eye baby. You will always be my light. We will always be together. No boundary can separate us.”
At around 6pm today, Ms O’Connor tweeted that she had formally identified her son.
She said her son had suffered serious mental health issues and was attending Tallaght Hospital.
The singer’s management agency, 67 Management, also confirmed the death of her son.
Garda sources explained that as coroners in Ireland do not have their own staff, gardaí carry out inquiries on their behalf.
While inquests establish the date and cause of death, the garda file is generally a detailed report, providing a timeline of what happened, including an account of the person’s known movements leading up to their death.
This will involve statements from anyone, including family, social services or hospital staff, as to when they saw him, what he was being treated for, his movements during that time, when he was last seen and other relevant circumstances or arrangements relating to the boy.
Gardaí will also gather any relevant CCTV footage capturing his movements. Gardaí released one such image in a renewed appeal they issued last Friday.
Sources said it would typically take “a number of weeks” to put the coroner’s file together, but added that the speed may depend on the coroner and how urgent they view it and the waiting list for inquests.
Sources stressed that considerable work is put into preparing files for the coroner, similar to the level of work put into criminal investigations.
Gardaí in Dun Laoghaire are conducting the investigation.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the HSE said: "The HSE cannot comment on individual cases when to do so might reveal information in relation to identifiable individuals, breaching the ethical requirement on us to observe our duty of confidentiality."
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