At least 11 young Irish people have been killed abroad in the past week, according to a charity that assists bereaved families with the repatriation of bodies.
Colin Bell of the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust said the deaths of two men in a workplace incident in Perth, Western Australia, on Wednesday had brought the number of Irish deaths in the city this week to five.
Joseph McDermott from Omagh, Co Tyrone, and Gerry Bradley from Portstewart, Co Derry, both in their 20s, were killed when a concrete panel fell on them as it was being unloaded at a construction site in East Perth at 11.30am local time (3.30am Irish time).
On Saturday, Alan Haughey (28), from Craigavon, was killed in a car crash. Mr Bell said his organisation was also assisting the families of two more Irish people with the repatriation of bodies.
Organ failure
“There was a young lad who fell off a ladder and a young girl who suffered organ failure after she contracted a virus,” he said. “This has been a horrific week. It’s been particularly tough.”
Mr Bell said his organisation deals “mostly with young people”, and that a further three bodies of Irish people were repatriated from Perth a fortnight ago. “The region really has been hit very hard in recent weeks,” he said.
“All of the circumstances are different. There was a father who came out to visit his son in Perth and had a heart attack. There was a young man whose car was hit by a train in Western Australia. Then there was a young man who took his own life.”
Mr Bell said he was dealing with a total of 11 deaths so far this week. Besides those in Australia, other deaths had occurred in Alberta in Canada, New York, Jamaica, Denmark and England.
Consular assistance
The Department of Foreign Affairs provided consular assistance to the families of 217 people who died while abroad in 2014.
The highest number of cases occurred in Spain, followed by Australia, US, Canada, Britain, France, Thailand, UAE and Portugal.
Mr Bell said the number of cases this week was “exceptional” and that the spike in recent weeks was “very unusual”.
On a “very good week” it would deal with one case, while a typical week would consist of two or three cases.
The trust was set up just over two years ago by Mr Bell and his family, from Newry, Co Down, after his 26-year-old son Kevin was killed in New York in June 2013.
Since then, the charity has repatriated the bodies of 130 people.
It receives no State funding and relies on fundraising and donations. Those wishing to donate can visit kevinbellrepatriationtrust.com
