Gorey’s Polish community rocked by tragic death
REMAINS OF THE LATE RYSZARD RYBCZY (61) FOUND LAST WEDNESDAY
GOREY’S Polish community remains in mourning this week following the untimely passing of Ryszard Rybczy (61) who died tragically at a location close to Gorey Community School last Wednesday morning.
His funeral takes place this morning (Tuesday) at St Michael’s church, Gorey and on Sunday a special Polish mass was held in his honour and following this he was reposed at Murphy’s funeral home, the Avenue.
The Polish community described feeling shocked by the tragic circumstances of Ryszard’s passing, and Esmonde street’s A Taste of Poland shop set up a donation box in support of the family at this difficult time.
A spokesperson for A Taste of Poland said that Ryszard used to come to the shop often, and he was known around as a nice and kind older man and that they decided to put out the box as a way to help with funeral expenses.
Last Wednesday, Gardaí were alerted by a local person who had come across the tragic incident and they arrived to the scene at about 10.25 a.m.
Local people gathered to assist and after this a post mortem was carried out at University Hospital Waterford and Ryszard was identified by family.
Gardaí confirmed that Ryszard had not been known to them previously and they deemed the death a personal tragedy.
Some of those who assisted at the scene were school caretakers, and Gorey Community School Principal Michael Finn described Ryszard’s passing as an awful tragedy.
‘Our sympathies go to the family. This is such a sad situation and an awful way for him to feel so far from home.
‘As this happened on our property, our support services will be available to students and school counsellors will be on alert. Students may be needing additional supports as you wouldn’t know what it might bring up,’ he said.
Speaking to this newspaper, the person who came across Ryszard and contacted Gardaí as well as the ambulance service last Wednesday described the whole situation as heartbreaking.
‘The Polish community are close knit and they look out for each other and a lot of people have said that he was known to have been a very nice friendly man. I recognised him when I saw him as I had only seen him in town a few days earlier. I had no fear approaching him but when I realised what had happened, I just felt so sad for him.
‘This sort of reminds you of the Irish men that would return home in old age. Over the last few days I’ve been thinking about the fact that this happened in full view. A lot of people would have seen him and it would have been a busy time of the morning too’.
A private cremation has been arranged for Ryszard Rybczy and he is survived by family both in Gorey and Poland.
May he Rest In Peace.