Hector Ó hEochagáin opens up about grief after the loss of his mother and brother

TG4 star and author Hector Ó hEochagáin experienced two deeply difficult losses in the space of a few years, and shared his experiences with grieving

Hector Ó hEochagáin has penned a new book - The Irish Words You Should Know : and how to start using them again, out this month - and in its pages is sharing his favourite phrases with Irish speakers, fluent and beginners.

He has also opened up about dealing with the losses of both his mother and his brother.

His mother, Triona, passed away suddenly in 2015. His brother Derek ‘Freddie’ Keogan sadly passed away in 2021.

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The TG4 star and author had been filling in for Anton Savage on Today FM and afterwards tried to call him mother but was unable to reach her.

“My mom didn’t answer the phone. I knew something was wrong after about six phone calls," he told Independent.ie.

"I knew she had been listening to me, so I knew something was wrong when I couldn’t get through."

“I was staying in the Camden Court Hotel and something in my head at 1am said something’s wrong and I drove down [to Meath] and I opened the door and my mum had died in her sleep that night. It’s hard to describe how I felt. There are no words for it, really.”

Sadly he then went through the loss of his older brother Freddie a few years later.

“You know, nobody teaches you how to deal with anything like that," he said.

"There’s no book that can teach you. How can you open the door and walk in and find your mother has died? Nobody teaches you that. Nobody teaches you how to react when you get a phone call from Denmark to say your brother’s dead.”

He has since been raising awareness for heart conditions.

“I’ve met so many people that have lost their brothers from a sudden heart attack, which can be easily checked out. And for arteriosclerosis, we all have bad cholesterol and sometimes it’s in families.

"He didn’t know about it and it could have been easily solved, it could have been fixed. And that’s the sad part about it. But I don’t know. I just try to find the positivity and laughter.”

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