Body of missing man laid to rest after 25 years
By Claire Henry
The funeral of a Limerick man has taken place after his body lay unidentified for 25 years in a Galway mortuary.
Denis Walsh was 23 years old when he left his home in Caherdavin in Co Limerick on 6 March 1996. Mr Walsh told his mother that he wouldn’t be home for dinner that evening.
The Walsh family have spent the last 25 years searching in both Ireland and abroad for information about their missing son and brother.
The family were notified last February that due to advances in DNA testing that Denis’s body had been recovered.
Denis’s parents, brothers and sister were relieved to have finally found Denis but were shocked to learn that his body had been recovered from the waters near Inis Mór off the coast of Galway one month after he had disappeared.
Denis’s body had lay unidentified in a hospital mortuary in Galway for 18 years before being buried in a communal city council-owned grave in 2014.
Denis’s family travelled to Galway on 6 April of 1996, where they handed out posters in Garda stations and informed Gardaí that they were looking for a missing family member. Denis’s body was recovered the following day.
The family travelled to Galway on 12 May after learning that a body had been discovered in Galway and once again spoke with Gardaí in Galway.
This week Denis Walsh’s body was exhumed from a communal grave in Bohermore Cemetery in Galway City.
The family of Denis Walsh have asked that a review be carried out as to why it has taken so many years to identify Denis’s body.
An inquest will take place next week at the Galway Corner Court
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