A wake for a man whose body was carried to a post office to collect his pension took place last night as dozens of mourners are expected at his funeral today.
Locals will rally around the heartbroken sister of Peadar Doyle and his extended family to comfort them following his sudden death, Carlow’s Mayor insisted yesterday.
The funeral of the 66-year-old will take place this morning at the Church of the Holy Family after mourners queued and comforted relatives last night. Gardai suspect Mr Doyle was dead for up to three hours before he was brought to a post office on Friday during in an alleged attempt to collect his pension.
Two men in their 30s, one being his nephew Declan Haughney, allegedly propped up his remains in Hosey’s post office on Staplestown Road.
The pair both made full statements to officers at Carlow Garda station and insisted the dead man had been alive when they left his home in Pollerton Road.
Neither of the men had been charged with any fraud-related offences last night.
Mayor of Carlow Councillor Ken Murnane yesterday said there was relief that the postmortem on Mr Doyle’s remains revealed there was no foul play.
He added: “Peadar was a gentleman. There is a lot of sympathy for his family and local people will rally around his sister Noeleen and extended family to offer them their support.”
There were crowds at Healy’s funeral home last night between 6pm and 8pm as people came to pay their respects to the bachelor.
The funeral Mass for Mr Doyle will take place at 11am before his remains are buried at St Mary’s Cemetery.
Dozens of friends and neighbours sympathised and sent their condolences to his family on the RIP.ie death notice page over the weekend.
One woman wrote: “Sincere condolences to Peadar’s family.
“So very sorry to read about what transpired after his passing – could hardly believe it.
“May Peadar’s soul now rest in eternal peace.”
Meanwhile, a local resident said: “Condolences to the extended family. This man deserves a big turnout for his funeral and I ask as many members of the community as possible to honour this man.
“It’s at times like this that we show our community spirit and honour Peadar.”
In a statement gardai said: “A postmortem of the deceased has been concluded. Foul play is not suspected.”
The two men who brought Mr Doyle to the post office insisted over the weekend that the retired painter was actually alive when they had left his home.
Mayor Murnane added: “The big thing for us is the gardai are ruling out foul play and straight away people have got a lot of comfort from that.
“My view on this would be this incident at Hosey’s post office last Friday had a serious affect and concerned people not only living in Carlow town but the whole country.
“And personally, I have every faith that the Carlow gardai will have the full facts established on this unbelievable incident later this week for this very unfortunate man who will get justice, if his body was used to commit fraud.”
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