Storey funeral blow for son stuck in Italy when dad died
NI man forced to watch burial on ipad angry no one prosecuted over Belfast gathering
A Belfast man living in northern Italy has expressed anger at the lack of prosecutions over the Bobby Storey funeral after being unable to say a proper farewell to his own father last year.
Phil Clark (55) was speaking after the Public Prosecution Service decided there was no prospect of successful prosecutions over the events of June 30 last year.
His 92-year-old father Thompson contracted coronavirus in the final throes of his battle with cancer and passed away three months earlier on March 25.
At the time Phil, along with the rest of society, was attempting to get to grips with the effects of an incurable respiratory disease that virtually no one had heard of.
Due to strict lockdown restrictions Thompson was unable to have his wife Ida (89) and four children at his bedside when he passed away in the Northern Ireland Hospice.
The tight rules also meant that rather than being in a chapel overnight, his body had to repose in a funeral parlour in Dunmurry before being removed to Roselawn for committal with only a handful of mourners in attendance.
Locked down in his apartment in Bassano Del Grappa in Veneto and unable to fly home, Phil put on a suit and watched the funeral online.
“The undertakers fed the ceremony directly onto my ipad,” he said.
“Roll forward a few months and we see all these people in west Belfast walking in a funeral cortege.
“You’re thinking ‘hang on a second this doesn’t make any sense to me’. I couldn’t go home to bury my dad and yet they could all gather for that funeral.
“It really wound me up and of course I know I’m not the only one.
“I haven’t been able to come home to Northern Ireland to see my family for well over a year and there is still a fear of having something and bringing it with me or picking something up while there and taking it back,” he said.
“Then we hear that no one will be prosecuted and yet I know that if I travel home I could be fined.
“At end of the day what happened that day was wrong.”
One year on, Phil says he still cannot comprehend that his father is no longer here.
“I still think to this day that he’s still alive. I have not let go yet and I won’t be able to until I get home to Belfast and sit in his chair.
“In my mind, I still imagine that when finally arriving home, we’ll pop out for a coffee or down to the bar for a pint, but I know reality has a different ending,” he added.
Phil grew up in Derriaghy but has spent most of his life overseas in Australia.
For the past 10 years he has been travelling between Italy and the US, where he runs a candle and perfume manufacturing company.
His ex-wife is Italian — it was that relationships which brought him to Italy — and she and their young son Alessandro (13) live in Milan.
Current coronavirus restrictions in most of Italy that closed restaurants, shops and museums through Easter are to be extend throughout April, the Italian government said on Wednesday, with all the country’s regions either ‘red’ or ‘orange’ zones.
Phil lives in a red zone where residents have to stay home except for work, health or other essential reasons.
Having lost his own father to the virus, Phil knows all too well its impact and he is just recovering from a bad bout of it himself.
“I may have picked it up at a coffee bar I visit every day where five staff later tested positive and it had to shut down, or the supermarket or an ATM machine. I have no idea but I had been so cautious with everything,” he said.
“It really hit me hard and nailed me to the floor.
“I was tired the whole time and unable to get out of bed, coughing and I had trouble breathing. I just couldn’t believe how quickly I went down hill. I didn’t eat for 12 days and ended up losing over a stone.
“It was great to lose the weight but just not in that way.
“My partner Lynette also tested positive but thankfully her symptoms were not as aggressive.
“She was tired and lost her sense of taste and smell for a while but that was it.”
Phil added: “I have never experienced anything like it and I hope I never do again.
“I’m on the mend but there’s a certain amount of fear that goes through you especially when you hear of those who end up with long term issues or sadly who don’t come out of hospital.
“I didn’t want to become a statistic. From personal experience, I now know that nothing about Covid-19 is fabricated.”