It robs us of so much, most especially the power to gather and hold each other in grief. We stood in the car park of the nursing home, metres apart; no entry allowed, as it must be, while my father-in-law Tom Maher breathed his last. Sonny’s body would be with us amidst his children, his clan, his people, till the grave. His final journeyTom, as a result, made his final journey as we stood outside Mount Jerome, his coffin blessed before it went through the door. Born in the shadow of the Rock of Cashel, Tom lived his childhood during another Emergency in the second World War.

Source: The Irish Times April 03, 2020 00:00 UTC