Glinsk community welcomes emigrant sean home for final farewell

THERE were poignant scenes in Glinsk this afternoon (Tuesday) when the community gathered to bid farewell to a long lost son, an Irish emigrant who was brought home to be laid to rest alongside his mother.

The funeral mass for Sean Parker, who left the village as a young child in the 1940s, takes place tomorrow (Wednesday) at Glinsk Church.

Sean, 79, passed away at a nursing home in Kent last July. It was his dying wish to be buried with his mother in Balinakill Graveyard.

However, with no surviving family in either Ireland or the UK, the authorities were facing the prospect of organising his funeral, where he would have been buried in an unmarked grave.

The decision of an official within Medway Council to follow up information that connected Sean with Co Galway has led to the deceased’s final wishes being honoured.

The story eventually reached a group of Sean’s old school friends from Ballycurran National School, who remembered him as a young boy and were determined to bring him home.

Receiving the remains, parish priest Fr John McCarthy said Sean’s story had touched everyone in the village and the community was determined to ensure that he was granted his wish to be buried alongside his mother, Annie, who passed away in 1945.

“It has given a happy ending to a particularly sad story and shows all that is good about people and communities like Glinsk in particular,” he said.

READ MORE IN WEDNESDAY'S TUAM HERALD