Justice at last for Galway family denied death cert

Twenty one year old Keith O’Reilly was on a J1 student visa in the United States when he died in a diving accident in the summer of 2009.

To compound the tragedy for his parents, Liam and Yvonne O’Reilly of Woodhaven, Merlin Park, found they were unable to register his death in Ireland.

From there grew a campaign called Help Bring them Home made up of family and friends of about 244 Irish people who had died abroad in previous years but were unable to get a death cert for their loved one.

Mayor of Galway City, Councillor Pádraig Conneely supported the campaign, which involved a petition signed by over 2,000 people and which led to it being presented to the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Social Protection.

Last year, Deputy Seán Kyne drew up a private members bill to be introduced to the Dáil but held off on the request of Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton, who was drawing up her own bill to make a number of amendments to the Civil Registration Act 2004.

This week, those amendments have been announced by the Minister and they include a change to Section 38 which means that Irish people dying abroad will now be registered in Ireland so that subsequently their next of kin can be issued with a death cert.

Yesterday, Mayor Conneely praised the courage of the O’Reillys and the other Irish families who had lost loved ones abroad and campaigned to have them included on the Irish death register.

“I am happy for them that their courage and persistence paid off and that the deaths of Irish people abroad can finally be recognised here officially,” said Cllr Conneely.

Yvonne O’Reilly said: “We have been promised this for a long time but we are so happy that his death will now be recorded in Ireland so it doesn’t look as if he just disappeared off the face of the earth.

The bill is expected to be passed in the Dáil by the end of the year.

 For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.