Actress Amy Huberman has been left heartbroken after her beloved father, Harold, has passed away.
Harold was diagnosed with Parkinson's and had been living in the care of a nursing home for the past few years.
Just a week ago, he celebrated his 84th birthday.
Her husband and former Ireland rugby captain Brian O’Driscoll paid tribute to his father-in-law on Sunday on social media.
He wrote: “RIP to my lovely father-in-law Harold.”
On Harold’s birthday, Amy spoke about her wonderful father, describing him as “gorgeous, kind, courageous, clever, very, very funny and all round total messer Dad.”
“He taught me so many important life lessons, too many to mention,” she said at the time.
Amy previously opened up about father’s illness – saying she feels like his ill health has robbed him of time with his grandkids and how not being able to see him during lockdown separated her loving family unit.
The mum-of-three said: “The one thing that has kind of affected me the most in the last few years is my dad’s illness and his ill health and again because he has been such a huge – like every parent – a huge part of my life and a real foundation of me as a person.
“He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s probably nine years ago at this stage and he’s had really bad health over the last two years, which has been really sh*t because of Covid. He is in full time care at the moment. I haven’t been able to see him a huge amount, but we can now but that’s been really hard.
“It has separated my family unit. Because it had to. It’s been a real slow drawn-out process where his ill health has robbed him of time at this particular time with his grandkids. So that has been my no laughing matter.
“I’ve had this luxury time with my kids and my husband and that has been lovely, but the flipside is of being robbed of time with them when I feel like there isn’t endless time left. So that has been really, really hard and I get so emotional about it,” she told Doireann Garrihy on the Laughs of Your Life podcast.
The author previously admitted she doesn’t know whether it is better to deal with the inevitability of his illness now or later - but she said her father is still “a messer” and makes everyone laugh in the care home.
“I feel like me dealing with his illness to come is in the post, I know it’s there and I don’t know which is better – you deal with it, and it is not a shock and that is sh*t because it’s infiltrating your time. The fact that he is still here. He’s still the messer in there. He’s confined to a wheelchair and his movement is restricted.
“He still makes everybody laugh up there. Even in my dad’s ill health, he still has this gorgeous sense of humour. Even now with all the gags, he still says them. Sometimes he gets confused about stuff but my dad wants to laugh.”
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