Limerick funeral delayed after plane leaves UK without body

The family of a woman whose funeral was delayed after her remains failed to arrive at Shannon airport on time have expressed dismay at the decision to hold the coffin in Heathrow due to “operational reasons”.

The remains of Mary O'Brien were due to arrive on an Aer Lingus flight from Heathrow at noon on Saturday, July 8th. Ms O'Brien, who died in June aged 88, had spent most of her life in the UK and was living in Edgeware in London before her death. Her family had arranged for her remains to be repatriated to Ireland for the family funeral in her hometown of Cappamore in Co Limerick.

However, the family was forced to delay the funeral by more than four hours when they discovered the coffin was not on board the scheduled flight. Ms O’Brien’s remains arrived in Shannon on a flight later than afternoon.

Tom O’Brien, one of Mary’s brothers, said the incident had caused “upset” to the family and that a lot of people had been waiting at the church for the coffin to arrive.

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"I have one daughter in Drogheda and she left at 8.30am to be in Shannon for noon when the plane was due to arrive," Mr O'Brien told the Limerick Leader. "My brother came from Galway, more came from Wexford and Cappamore to Shannon to be told the remains were not put on the flight. There were a lot of people in Cappamore church waiting. It is not good enough, it is not acceptable."

He said: “They admitted the plane was overcrowded and there was no room. A parcel could have waited, this was a human.”

Mr O'Brien said the undertakers had acted very professionally and that they were not connected with the delay. However, a spokeswoman for Aer Lingus told The Irish Times that the airline had informed the funeral home of the delay before sending the remains back to Ireland on the next flight to Shannon.

She said the airline never deals directly with families when repatriating a body and that all contact was through the funeral home.

“Aer Lingus was unfortunately not able to carry Mary O’Brien’s remains as booked on EI381 from London to Shannon on 8th July, due to operational reasons,” said a statement from Aer Lingus.

It said: “Ms O’Brien’s remains were repatriated on the following flight that day, EI385.

“The funeral director’s firm which was managing the repatriation of Ms O’Brien’s remains was informed of the delay on 8th July. Aer Lingus regrets any distress caused to the Ms O’Brien’s family.”

Ms O'Brien was born in 1929 and joined the Sisters of Mercy in Cappamore before moving to the UK to join the Sisters of St Joseph of Annecy, the Limerick Leader reported.

After 26 years as a nun she began working as a housekeeper and cook for the clergy in Bristol and London. Despite spending most of her life in the UK, her brother said she never forgot her Irish roots and spent two weeks in Cappamore every year.