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22nd Jun 2021

Andrew McGinley doesn’t “feel like a dad anymore” after tragic deaths of children

Sarah McKenna Barry

Andrew McGinley

The father shared the dread he felt as Father’s Day approached.

Andrew McGinley spoke recently about the overwhelming grief he feels following the tragic deaths of his children Conor, Darragh and Carla last January.

In an interview with RSVP Live, Andrew said that he doesn’t “feel like a dad anymore”.

“Anybody who has kids wants to talk about them forever and I am no different,” he said. “In all honesty, people tell me I am still a father but I don’t feel like a dad anymore.”

Mr McGinley also told the publication that he dreaded Father’s Day until he visited a medium.

“I went to the medium and she said that the kids want me to make the house a home and to be happy. She told me things that nobody else would know that gave me great comfort.”

He continued: “I believe that your soul, spirit or consciousness survives after death. She told me a secret that Darragh told me about two weeks before he died and it was something unique that I hadn’t told anyone. You could start guessing the secret now and by next week you still won’t have gotten it but she was able to tell me word for word.”

Andrew McGinley

A few months ago, Mr McGinley told Miriam O’Callaghan that community support and letters “got him through” the following year.

“They were just fantastic to me, the neighbours, the community, just everybody has been, and they can’t do enough,” he said.

“I have to recognise everybody who wrote to me because when I put the appeal out for letters at the start of lockdown. I think Conor’s clips had about 300 followers. I thought if 30 or 40 of those people wrote to me, it’d be lovely it would get me through, and I’d write back and would get me through lockdown a little bit.

He added: “They got me through so thank you to everybody.”

The McGinley children were killed by their mother, Deirdre Morley, last January in their Dublin home. Morley was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Andrew has said that the verdict is “probably the right one”.