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Updated 12.43pm
PRESIDENT MICHAEL D. Higgins and Taoiseach Enda Kenny were among the mourners this morning’s funeral mass for Coast Guard pilot Captain Dara Fitzpatrick.
Mass was said this morning at St. Patrick’s Church, Glencullen, Dublin with Fr. Andrew O’ Sullivan describing Capt. Fitzpatrick’s death as “profoundly sad and sorrowful”.
“We are all here this morning to remember Dara and also to offer our support to the Fitzpatrick family. Through our presence here in such great numbers we are stating publicly that we too recognise the blessing that Dara was,” he said.
We are expressing gratitude to the Fitzpatrick family for moulding Dara into that wonderful young woman and mother that she was. Over the last few days many stories have been told about Dara and how she was a wonderful colleague and friend and indeed of the incredible professionalism and bravery of those in the coastguard and in our emergency services.
The priest’s homily also made reference to the pilot’s life and hobbies, speaking about her “goofy sense of humour” and love of horse-riding, cooking and hillwalking.
“She was kind to her core and a champion of the underdog. She was fiercely loyal and her family was of paramount importance to her,” Fr. O’ Sullivan told the mourners.
Several people including Dara Fitzpatrick’s sister Niamh have pointed out the the the south Dublin road leading to the St. Patrick’s Church is the R116, the exact same number as the Rescue 116 helicopter that crashed with the loss of Fitzpatrick and three colleagues.
Those colleagues, who are still yet to be found were also remembered at today’s mass:
As we honour Dara today with the rites of Christian funeral we are also very mindful of Dara’s three crew members who have yet to be found, and we commend them to God and we keep them and their families foremost in our thoughts and prayers.
The 45-year-old pilot from Kilternan, Dublin died from injuries she sustained in a helicopter crash which happened off the coast of Blacksod, Mayo on Tuesday.
The family had asked that no flowers be brought to the church and that donations, if desired, should be given to the RNLI, Dublin & Wicklow Mountain Rescue and The Donkey Sanctuary.
Following today’s mass, she will then be cremated at Mount Jerome in Harold’s Cross.
Tributes
Yesterday’s Saint Patrick’s Day from Archbishop Eamon Martin’s included a tribute to the late pilot.
He said: “In 2017, when we think of the treacherous journeys many migrants are forced to make, we are powerfully reminded of those who commit their lives to the protection of humanity. I especially bring to mind the bravery, commitment and dedication of the women and men of our own search and rescue services at home. Our prayers are with the families of the crew of Coastguard Helicopter Rescue 116: Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, Mark Duffy, Ciaran Smith and Paul Ormsby.”
Chief Inspector with the Air Accident Investigation Unit Jurgen Whyte said investigators would now focus on trying to recover the beacon. He said it was hoped the missing crewmen would be found in the same area.
Tributes have been pouring in for the pilot and the three other missing crewmembers.
Speaking to RTÉ News, Dara’s father John said the situation is “horrendous” and “absolutely heartbreaking”, but that the family feels “tremendous pride” for Dara and the work she was doing.
Her mother Mary described her as “a good, kind Christian person” who was passionate about being in the Coast Guard and loved animals.
“She adopted a little boy almost three years ago and he was the absolute light of her life and the light of our lives … We will bring Fionn up as Dara would have wanted.” Mary said.
Her sister Niamh said the situation is “a living nightmare” and they keep thinking Dara will wake up.
The family thanked the public, the Coast Guard and gardaí for all the support they have received. They said they are praying for the other victims’ families and hope Dara’s colleagues are found soon.
- With reporting by Rónan Duffy
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Good luck and keep at it. Skibbereen ambulance was saved so don’t give up!
: )
If the government get their way, WRH will no longer be a specialist centre & Waterford & Clonmel patients will be sent to Cork which is already over-stretched & Wexford & Kilkenny patients to Dublin hospitals which are also over-stretched. Financially & Logically breaking up the South -East hospital group makes no sense. 500,000 people in The South-East are relying on WRH for specialist care. This issue is way more important than party politics.
Actually this isn’t true. If the HSE believed that 500,000 people were relying on WRH then there wouldn’t be a problem. The problem is that Clonmel typically refers to Cork and St Luke’s and Wexford to Dublin. Relations between the South-Eastern hospitals are fraught. The HSE plan has, until recently, to preserve WRH as a tertiary centre, but it can’t do that unless sufficient patients are referred from outside the Waterford area. The protests about the ‘downgrading’ have been loud from Waterford but absent from the areas you state ‘need’ Waterford hospital, like Kilkenny and South Tipp, but who currently don’t use it.
Actually no Joe. A very large presence from the surrounding counties yesterday. This is part of a bigger conspiracy against Waterford, led by Hogan, Howlin and Co.
If its the case that there is such regional support why did St Luke’s, Wexford and Clonmel hospitals ask specifically not to be linked to Waterford in the new hospital groups. It looks like Kilkenny and Wexford will be linked to St Vincent’s and the Mater and Clonmel to CUH. My own view and most peoples view is that it would be most sensible to have a South East hospitals group, but the greatest opposition isn’t from the Government or the HSE or ‘Dublin’, it’s within the hospitals in your own region.
Your right on where the basis for this change is coming for ok Joe, its most from a group of consultants in st Lukes, there is no point in me speculating on their motives but I honestly don’t feel them as clear cut as best care services for the region. They would be more aligned with the betterment of their own departments funding. Now we all want every hospital to be top of their game but without a regional focus to centers of excellence I don’t believe people will get the best care. There are buses running daily to WRH from wex, Kk, Carlow and tip, for cancer treatment, dialysis, scans .. These people having to travel to Dublin or cork for an identical treatment already in place in the region I think is insane.
Putting aside the further distances and heavier traffic, St Vincents and CUH are in themselves fine hospitals, but they are stretched to capacity as it is, full trollies lo.g waiting lists and hiring embargos. It simply doesn’t make sense to me how a group of consultants would believe this to be a smart decision, The pressure that these centers are under would require them to rufuse or delay patients, or giving the feeding hospitals more ability to deal with the patients themselves?….
It’s funny to see Ciara Conway desperately scrambling trying to save her seat. Herself, & Coffey & Deasy will find it very hard to get re-elected if this downgrade happens. 4 seats up for grab in Waterford constituency next time out. Could Waterford end up a FF/FG/Lab free zone????
We’re already FF free. Good start.
Coffey is a joke he jumped on this bandwagon.peacefull protests will get us nowhere come on they even had dancers at it yesterday.why arnt we picketing goverment buildings in the city on weekdays not this organised thing on saturdays going getting a permit of tge gardai to march.
TFM. – look at the inane press releases from those three this week. A week when the future of the hospital is at stake. Says it all. Not one word about WRH.
People who are ill are being forced to travel further and further for treatment. Is this helping in their recovery? I don’t think so! PLEASE somebody give the Dept of Health and the HSE a transfusion of Common Sense!
It just doesn’t make any sense! I live in the North Kildare and they have taken our ambulance away on a Thursday between the hours of 7am – 7pm. Desicions and choices being made by Reilly & co. with absolutely no regard for human life. Glad to see so many people out marching, West Cork managed to retain their ambulances through sheer people power and a vigorous campaign!
You forgot to plug the fb page Lorna :P
Local media put the crowd at 5,000-6,000.
The South-East region has the highest unemployment rate in the country yet new companies here receive only half the support of the BMW regions. That is completely unfair & puts the region at a huge disadvantage. That needs to change.
Just look at FG/LAb on the city council in Waterford council they got rid of the local binmen,they took the contract off the ESB workers in Waterford and gave it to airtricity in .Cork. They have put the water department into Bord Gais and their putting that up for sale.Their selling the forestry sector off to the private sector more Waterford workers sacked.They stopped the remedial work inn the council estates and sacked local builders and now they want to move half the departments from the city council to Dungarvan and take on their 6 million dept and your asked to pay property tax to pay for it.Not to forget the VEC gone to Wexford forcing the Waterford workers out of work.We dont need vandals in Waterford we have the pact sharing out the money and selling out our city and hospital.
FG & FF support water charges and property tax. Be careful what you wish for.
Their representatives on Waterford City council are mere sheep John. And put the political party before this great City.
Well done to everyone who attended, stand up and be strong
Reilly hasn’t a clue trying to tell people how to run the health service he can’t run his own affairs
Ur voice will be heard even after tis Tuesday do not give up
Take to the streets every Saturday – what about a constant picket 24hrs a day on all government offices and TD offices – everybody does 3-4 hrs just a taught
Well done everybody I would say there were close to 5000 people there
But state media again playing it down 2000-3000
The reason tertiary services in Waterford are under threat is that people from Kilkenny, Wexford, South Tipp and even some from Waterford prefer to be referred to Dublin or Cork Hospitals for complex management. The population of Waterford and environs is too small to support a tertiary hospital.
The only way you can get Waterford to function as a Tertiary referral hospital is if you can change the referral patterns from St Luke’s, Wexford and Clonmel and convince the staff there that WRH can offer the same level of care as the large teaching hospitals. The problem is that it simply can’t offer the same services at the moment. So how do you implement the preservation of WRH? Remove the choice from people attending the other hospitals? Marching up and down the main street in Waterford isn’t going to help this. If you can persuade people to march in Kilkenny or Wexford it might.
Joe. People from the areas mentioned WERE marching. Sweet Jesus.
Sweet Jesus or otherwise there have been no demonstrations on the streets of Kilkenny, Clonmel or Wexford to preserve WRH. I think the government is pretty clear that the people of Waterford are worried about losing (or more accurately being unable to support) specialist services, but the argument here is that there is a substantial demand for WRH to be the regional hub outside of Waterford and to show that you’ d need positive support from the other 3 general hospitals. You don’t have it
According to you Joe……..according to you.
Joe, imagine this was happening to any other city
If you think this is bad, wait until HIQA sees that NCHD’s are working 80hr weeks…. There won’t be a hospital outside of the 4 main cities left open.
What are the 4 main cities?
Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.
Currently Waterford is every bit a city as much as Galway (a lot longer than 1985). Sure lets downgrade Galway and limerick too. This stinks to high heaven at this stage, if you lived here it would be the only way you would realise the battering this city is getting from all angles.
#theforgottencity
Waterford isn’t a national tertiary referral centre, the problem is that LUH and GUH are referral centres with established services. Waterford doesn’t have them.
My point wasn’t a dig at Waterford, it was a general dig at all hospitals – if HIQA states that hospitals are unsafe due to overworked doctors you can expect hospitals all over the place to be closed and downgraded, redirecting services to full referral centres, like SVUH, MUH, Beaumont, SJUH, GUH, CUH, LUH, GUH…
Exactly. The vast majority of protestors would have been from Waterford. Bet you if did a straw poll up in Kilkenny city or Carlow yesterday most people wouldn’t have even known it was on or felt strongly enough to attend.There’s no strong feeling that this will greatly affect anyones lives outside of Waterford and immediate surrounds. Joe Harbinson is right. You can’t force the hospitals to refer to WRH just because it’s in the SE region.
What’s up with the picture? Was someone trying to photoshop themselves tall and thin and the whole city got styled that way?
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