Muireann O’Connell has opened up about the death of her beloved dad.
The TV presenter’s father Brendan passed away in March this year, following a battle with cancer.
Speaking to The Irish Sun, Muireann admitted she would often forget her father was no longer here in the months after his death.
She said: “I miss him all the time. The first few months I remember I went to ring him over something to do with my car, you know the way regardless of what age you are, you’re always a child, no matter what happened you’re always a child when it comes to your parents, and I wanted to ask him something.”
“I went to pick up the phone and ask him and I went, ‘Oh god, I can’t ask him that, he’s not there’. So it’s little things like that, that make you go, ‘Oh god’.”
“It’s little things like that that make you kind of realise and in the first month you can be quite absent-minded and go to get them or call for them.”
“Like mam would be going, ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ and you know he’s not there, so that’s strange because you’re brain hasn’t caught up with the reality sometimes.”
Muireann continued: “I miss him all the time you would be surprised at things that make you go oh god he’s not here anymore but I think it’s heartbreaking for my mother.”
“He was her best friend, they were married for 52 years and it’s the person who’s left behind that it is very difficult on. But she has a great group of friends who are fantastic so that’s really lovely and I suppose not having the kind of funeral is very odd.”
The Limerick native praised her community for coming out and supporting her family on the day of her dad’s funeral – which due to the Covid-19 restrictions was small and socially distanced.
“It was amazing, the community really did come out. My dad loved a funeral, he thought one of the most important things in the world is to go to funerals.”
“On the day of his funeral it was kind of amazing. It was socially distanced obviously but so many people were outside our house and lined the roads of our estate, they were outside the hospital and they were outside the church which was really lovely to see.”
“But then you’re inside this massive church and there’s ten of you and it’s a bit odd,” she admitted.
“We went home after the funeral, it was a horrible day and the next thing he was in the ground and we’re at home and there’s only a few of us there and there’s nothing to be done. It was odd, the traditions weren’t there and the ceremony of death was taken away.”
“That was one of the oddest nights of my life. I think just looking at his chair going, ‘Okay he’s not there anymore but we’re all sitting here at seven o’clock at night,’ it was odd, very odd.”
Praising the nurses who looked after her father, Muireann said: “The Irish Cancer Society have played a role in my families life that we never expected. The night nurses are some of the best people I have ever met in my life.”
“They’re just there for you, they know what’s professional but also they’re the most emotionally intelligent people I have ever come across.”
