Willie O’Dea speaks on loss of nephew

Minister Willie O’Dea has spoken about the loss of a nephew in a drowning tragedy. He has told about how his family’s grief was being compounded by the delay in the release of the body by the Spanish authorities.

“They seem to have a huge amount of bureaucracy and had to get some official to come back from holiday to sign some papers. It doesn’t help a bereaved family. I advised my sister and her husband against going out there.

I was about 20 miles from Galway when I got a call on my mobile from Superintendent Jim Browne of Bruff. Jim is a great friend and has been for years. He said he had some bad news. I just told my driver to pull over. It was just so hard to
take it in. My young nephew was a fine young lad with everything to live for.

I wouldn’t like to see anybody go through what the family is going through at the moment. The wait to get the body home from Spain. The fact that we do not have him home makes it all the harder,”

21 year old Basil Bourke from Hospital, Co Limerick went missing from a disco boat on the island resort of Ibiza where he was holidaying with friends. He had drowned.