Family’s wait ends as body of Tyrone man identified

Noel Baker and Juno McEnroe

Connor Keightley's father, Dermot, told of his son's last peaceful hours before the tidal waves struck the island resort of Phi Phi.

"Three days after it happened, I got a phone call from a fellow in Liverpool and he said he had been with Connor on Christmas Day and they had all gone on a boat trip, seven of them.

"They'd come off the boat and went for a meal, and by that time it was 10 o'clock at night and that's the last he'd seen of Connor and they all were supposed to meet up on Boxing Day.

"But that didn't happen."

Mr Keightley also praised gardaí and Government officials.

"They've been unbelievable. They've been ringing here every day of the week. All they can do for us, they've got two detectives out there."

Connor's sisters and other family members had been determined to bring his body home to Cookstown.

Mr Keightley told how Connor's uncle Damien Coyle, broke the news. "He came on and said 'I thought we'd have better news for you, but we have found his body. They think it's Connor's, so it wasn't confirmed until we got the phone call at seven o'clock this morning'.

"They went out last Wednesday to search all the hospitals and look at photographs of people who had been in hospital and moved on somewhere else.

"They went through a lot and said they were going out there to bring Connor home and I'm glad for them, too, that they are bringing him home, that we have got a body," he told RTÉ.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern yesterday sent his condolences.

"I want to extend on my behalf, and on behalf of the Government, my most sincere condolences to Connor's family and friends.

"During my visit to Thailand in recent days, I met with them and I was moved by the level of courage and determination they have shown during this most difficult time."

Gardaí helped identify the 31-year-old's body in the Thai town of Krabi.

Mr Keightley is the second Irish person to have died in the disaster, after Dubliner Eilís Finnegan.

He had left Australia for Thailand four weeks earlier.

His family has been told it may take a week or more before his body can be returned home for burial.

It is understood that dental records and information gathered at the garda incident room at Dublin

Airport played a role in confirming the identification of Connor's body.

Members of the Keightley family sisters Darina Duffin and Michelle McCaughey, cousin Gavin O'Neill and uncle Damien Coyle travelled back to Northern Ireland last night.