McCarthy brothers: Funeral to be held in Kerry on Sunday

The funeral will take place this weekend of the two elderly brothers whose bodies were found last Tuesday in the house they shared in Dublin.

One had died some weeks ago, and the other had continued to live in the house until he died last weekend.

A Mass will be held for William and Daniel McCarthy, who were both in their 70s, at Emmaus Chapel at Deaf Village Ireland on Ratoath Road, Cabra, Dublin today at 11am.

Their remains will be brought to St Mary's Church in Dingle, Co Kerry for Mass tomorrow at 11am.

They will be buried in St Brendan’s Cemetery in Dingle along with their predeceased brother and parents.

The two brothers, who were deaf, spent their early years on a farm near Dingle. They visited their home property in Glens, about three miles from Dingle, last month, according to a family friend and local councillor, Seamus Cosaí Fitzgerald.

Shocked

Their younger brother Éamonn, a farmer who is married with grown-up children and grandchildren, also has a house on the property.

The bodies of the two brothers were found in their house in Millrose Estate in the Bluebell area of Dublin.

A postmortem concluded both died of natural causes.

The brothers are believed to have returned to Glens every year for a summer holiday.

Mr Fitzgerald said one of the brothers normally drove and “you would not miss” his car when it was back in town.

“No matter how many cars were in the town, you’d spot the car a mile away – it was so well kept. It was so clean and spotless.”

The brothers would normally stay up to four weeks every summer at the home in which they grew up.

“It’s tragic and very sad for the family. Obviously people are shocked and our sympathy goes to the family,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

Hard decision

“It’s a very difficult time for them. They are a very quiet and hard-working family.”

The brothers had limited verbal communications but were fluent Irish Sign Language (ISL) users. They had moved to Dublin at a young age.

“Their parents at the time made a very hard decision for them to have a better life, to go to Dublin to get the best care and education possible under the circumstances at the time. It was very hard for them,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

“They did well in Dublin and went on and got full-time employment.”

Active

It is understood the brothers worked in a shoe-mending factory until it closed in the 1980s. One them continued to work, doing jobs including painting and gardening.

“They made Dublin their home away from home and enjoyed Dublin. They were very independent, active and had a good life,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

Their sister lives in the Dublin area and is understood to have met her brothers regularly. The brothers were also members of Tallaght Deaf Club.

The Irish Deaf Society said they had attended a lot of social events for the deaf, and had their own circle of friends.

Eddie Redmond, chief executive of the society, said the deaf community faced barriers in accessing services due to a lack of services available through ISL.

Without official recognition of ISL, deaf people were left vulnerable to social and economic exclusion.