Sinéad O'Connor's son Shane to be cremated on Thursday
Singer Sinead O'Connor with her son Shane, who died tragically in recent days.
Shane O’Connor the teenage son of singer Sinéad and musician Donal Lunny who died tragically last week is to be cremated on Thursday.
The 17-year-old died last Friday after he went missing from a psychiatric ward in Tallaght Hospital a day earlier. His remains were found in Bray, Co Wicklow after gardaí issued a missing persons alert.
The singer tweeted on Monday night that Shane would be cremated at Newlands Cross crematorium as her son, who was a Hindu, had expressed the wish prior to his death.
She revealed that her son also wanted just his parents to be present at the cremation.
Ms O’Connor tweeted: “Shane was Hindu. So the funeral will be just his mother and father."
The mother-of-four also asked that if people are going to send anything to the mortuary at Loughlinstown Hospital or Newlands Cross crematorium, to “please send flowers or Hindu objects”.
Heartbroken Ms O'Connor took to social media last night to apologise to Tusla for “lashing out” in the wake of the tragic death of her teenage son.
Before the discovery and afterwards, Ms O’Connor had tweeted her dissatisfaction and fear over her son’s engagement with services, and afterwards she used the social media platform to launch fierce criticism of Tusla and the Health Service Executive, staying at one point that she would never forgive the Irish state for what had happened.
On Monday night, however, the acclaimed singer tweeted: “Ok, I’m gonna do the right thing here and apologise for my lashing out. Tusla are working with very limited resources. They loved Shane. They are broken-hearted. They are human. I am sorry I have upset them. We are a third-world country. It’s not their fault.
“The issue is... we are a third-world country. We have 12 beds in special care for suicidal teenagers. And no resources to save those who can’t manage life. 128 ICU beds in the whole country. Tusla did their best. We all did: and I am deeply sorry to have blamed anyone.”
Ms O’Connor also said she was available to be contacted by Tusla. She said flowers in memory of her son could be sent to Loughlinstown mortuary.
As Shane was known to care services, the case has been referred to the national review panel (NRP), which undertakes reviews of deaths of young people in the care system or known to care services, with a view to findings that could improve the system.
Any report by the NRP is unlikely to arrive in the near future and, on Monday, neither Tusla nor the HSE would make any comment as to whether the case was the subject of internal reviews by both bodies.
