Hector Ó hEochagáin has spoken about the recent passing of his brother Freddie, explaining that the death of a sibling is a ‘different grief’ to that of losing a parent.
Derek ‘Freddie’ Keogan had been in Copenhagen, Denmark when he fell off his bike cycling to work and ‘died instantly’.
Hector explained that his brother’s death was due to a blocked artery which never showed up in health checks.
Hector has now spoken about the grief he feels losing his brother, admitting it was an ‘awful time’.
‘It’s not the news anyone wants to hear when your brother dies suddenly. It’s been a few months now since it happened but it doesn’t get any easier because it’s an image of his head in my head every day,’ he told Brendan O’Connor on his RTE Radio 1 show.
‘I find when I’m out driving the car and daydreaming it takes me to one place and it takes me to my brother at the moment.’
Hector went on to praise the people who have contacted him to share their sympathies for his loss, telling their own stories of losing a sibling.
‘There’s strength in numbers,’ he continued.
When they stop me in the aisle of a supermarket and tell me their stories I feel as if there’s an arm being put around me.’
Hector said that losing a sibling is a ‘different grief’ to that of losing an older relative or a parent, which sparked Brendan to open up about losing his brother 20 years ago.
‘You expect to come to a stage in life where you might lose your siblings but when it happens early like that it’s a unique thing,’ he said.
Brenda added: ‘I wouldn’t say I handled it very well.
