THE FUNERAL of a 40-year-old Kerryman, a married father of one, killed in last month’s earthquake in New Zealand, will take place on Saturday in Christchurch.
John Joseph “JJ” O’Connor, an accountant from Abbeydorney, was working in the Pyne Gould Guinness building when the quake struck on February 22nd. It was over two weeks before his body was recovered.
He had moved to Christchurch last September from London with his New Zealand-born wife Sarah, and their son Dan (2). The couple’s second child is due in May.
Mr O’Connor’s widowed mother Sheila and his siblings have travelled to New Zealand.
Yesterday, Mr O’Connor’s uncle Denis, who lives in Abbeydorney, said the family were grateful his body had been recovered. “The waiting is over even though the result is not good,” he said. There would be a service in Abbeydorney in mid-April, he said.