Limerick man devotes his life to finding out how his dad’s life ended

MICHAEL Daly Jnr’s quest for a second inquest into his father Michael Daly Snr’s death started immediately after the first inquest returned a verdict of natural causes in 2012.

“I said I am taking this on myself,” said Mr Daly Jnr.

He gave up drinking and his few pints with friends on Friday nights, spending every weekend “religiously” poring over his father’s medical files.

Over the next four years he read through some 16,000 A4 sheets of reports.

“I didn’t know where I was going at the beginning. It is a good thing I had Google to learn all the medical abbreviations,” said

Mr Daly Jnr, who compiled his own report four years later and began campaigning on behalf of his dad.

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Eleven years after the first inquest there was a loud exhalation of breath in unison from the family and relatives of the late Mike Daly Snr at his second inquest when the Limerick coroner John McNamara read out a verdict of medical misadventure.

One family member stood up and held a framed photograph of Mr Daly Snr. Tears were wiped away. The sense of relief was palpable in Kilmallock Courthouse.

Speaking after the verdict Mr Daly Jnr read out a statement on behalf of the Daly family.

“I would like to thank the coroner John McNamara and his staff for all their diligence and hard work in bringing this second inquest into our father's death to a conclusion.

“We always knew as a family that if the full body of evidence was presented the coroner would come to the verdict he reached.

As a family all we wanted to know was what exactly happened to our father and all the circumstances around his passing in April 2010,” said Mr Daly Jnr, who paid particular thanks to their legal team led by Doireann O'Mahony BL.

Ms O'Mahony had earlier spoken of Mr Daly Jnr's “tenacity” when he “battled to get (medical) records”.

Mr Daly Jnr said: “It was horrendous having to go through records to find out bit by bit what happened and come across a series of incidents.”