Grieving families mourn those who died in care during pandemic

The Remembrance Day event for those who died while in care during the Covid pandemic at Marina Park in Cork. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Hundreds of grieving families turned out for Friday's Remembrance Day event for those who died while in care during the pandemic.

The events, in Marina Park beside Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork, and in the Square in Dundalk, Co Louth, were held ahead of the State's National Day of Remembrance on Sunday.

About 120 people attended the Cork event and some 250 attended the Dundalk event.

Thousands more engaged via Twitter and Facebook.

A video put up featuring photographs of just over 100 people who died was watched by around 3,700 people.

Candles were lit at both events and the names of some of the estimated 2,100-plus who died in nursing homes during the pandemic were read out.

Some families were too emotional to read out the name of their own loved one or say any words.

Photographs of loved ones at the Marina Park event. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Instead, many of them stood in silence, tears streaming down their faces.

Family members held onto each other for comfort as, at the Cork event, the loudspeaker played Foster and Allen’s 'Remember Me'.

Arlene Walsh, whose uncle, Jimmy Lee, died on February 3, 2021, at CareChoice Ballynoe Nursing Home, said a few words.

Then Regina Nolan, whose father, Noel O’Sullivan, died on October 18, 2020, after a fall at the Bon Secours Care Village in Co Cork, read out a poem.

“You can shed tears that they are gone or you can smile because they have lived.

“You can close your eyes and pray that they will come back, or you can open your eyes and see all that they have left behind.

“Your heart can be empty because you can't see them, or you can be full of the love that you shared.

“You can turn your back on today and live with yesterday's horrors.

“You can remember them and only that they are gone or the awful circumstances in which many left or you can cherish their memory and let it live on.

“You can do what they would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

“For those who need answers, they too will come, but for now, we must live our lives as they would want us to.” 

Pat Coyle, whose wife, Veronica, died in CareChoice Ballynoe, on February 8, 2021, said: “It was very emotional for everybody.

“It was difficult, understandably, but it went very well.”

Mrs Walsh, another of the organisers, said: “This was one of two events organised by a voluntary group, Care Champions.

“That group has done more to help people not only deal with what happened in our nursing homes but also to try and find out why our loved ones died.

“We still have so many answers.

“We still want to find out what happened inside so many of these homes that led to so many people dying.”