RTÉ 2fm star Ciara King has been praised for bravely opening up about the death of her older brother, Darragh.
Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on RTÉ Radio 1, the presenter revealed her brother died from acute lymphatic leukaemia when he was seven-years-old.
Ciara was just two-and-a-half at the time, and said she decided to speak out about her brother’s death after watching Rob Kearney’s interview on The Late Late Show last month.
The rugby player appeared on the show to discuss the death of his six-year-old brother Ross, who was hit by a truck back in 1988.
.@KearneyRob speaks about his brother Ross, who passed away tragically in 1988.#LateLate pic.twitter.com/ZEwjDHgFIU
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) October 16, 2020
Ciara explained: “I had identified with Rob Kearney in a way that I hadn’t with anyone else. I also had a brother who passed away who I don’t remember.”
During her emotional interview, Ciara said she’s always struggled with the fact she has no memories of her brother.
She said: “I used to lie in bed at night as a little girl, and I used to will myself to have a memory.”
“When I got to my teenage years and I read an article about repression I was like ‘I have repressed my memories’ but then I got to my 20s and I was like, ‘Man I don’t remember him.'”
Ciara said her family have helped keep Darragh’s memory alive by telling stories about him.
“There’s things that I have done in my life to make sure that he is very much alive for me. Credit to my mum and dad — we talk about him all the time,” she said.
“My mum’s family, my dad’s family, the people in the village have all kept his memory alive for me and they’ve allowed me to create this little tapestry of what I think his life was like when he was here with us. I love that people share stories and I really appreciate it.”
The 2fm host also admitted she only grieved her brother properly a few years ago, after she went to therapy over a bad breakup.
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“A couple of years back, I was going through a significant breakup and I wasn’t dealing with it as I should have been doing,” she revealed.
“I wasn’t getting better and I was completely losing my mind. I had never felt this way in my life before so I went to therapy for it and through process of elimination, the therapist said to me, ‘You need to grieve for your brother.'”
“It took me 30 years to realise I had to grieve for my brother. For me, it was my mum and dad’s grief, it was my family’s grief. Imagine it took me 30 years to realise I had to grieve for my brother.”
“That just opened up a whole new can of worms and it’s the best thing that I ever did. We’d all be really foolish to think that things that happened in our childhood aren’t going to manifest in some way in our adulthood, no matter what that situation was. Darragh sits comfortably on my shoulder now,” she added.
After Ciara’s interview aired on RTÉ Radio 1, many listeners took to Twitter to praise the presenter.
Oh my god, what you just said really resonated! We lost my brother in 1988, he was 33. I spent many years saying how awful it was for mom (and it truly was 😢), but didn’t allow myself to grieve for the longest time. Love to you and yours xXx
— Mary Russell 😻😽🐶💜 (@Mary1002) November 19, 2020
Thanks Michael X
— Ciara King (@iamCiaraKing) November 19, 2020
It heals in a way, but you’re right, it never goes away X
— Ciara King (@iamCiaraKing) November 19, 2020
Thank you so much x
— Ciara King (@iamCiaraKing) November 19, 2020
Thank you so much. It means a lot X
— Ciara King (@iamCiaraKing) November 19, 2020
You did so well on the show this morning , such a hard story to talk about
— whatisyourno (@whatisyourno1) November 19, 2020
