Husband recalls finding wife dead in Tunisia terror attack
A MAN whose wife was killed in the 2015 terror attack on a Tunisian beach has relived the appalling moment he found his wife dead.
Farmer Declan Carty also said he had become lifelong friends with Irish ambassador David Cooney and consul Caoimhe Ní Chonchúir, who helped him.
The father of two from Robinstown, Co. Meath, was on holiday recovering from a heart attack in Sousse with wife Lorna when a gunman opened fire in the resort on June 26, 2015, killing 38 people. Among them were another Irish couple, Martina and Laurence Hayes from Athlone. He was woken up by the gunfire. ‘I wasn’t sure what it was, whether it was firecrackers,’ he told The Thin Green Line, an RTÉ documentary series about Ireland’s diplomatic service.
‘It was a war zone. It was not a holiday resort any more.
‘I tried to ring Lorna a few times and there was no answer. I just said, that’s it, I’m not waiting any more. I put my head down and decided I’m going to keep walking. I was going down to the beach. I found out then pretty soon.’
He discovered his dead wife among the victims and was traumatised by what he saw.
‘I was out there in a foreign country. I was there on my own and needed support,’ said Declan.
‘I knew I had to make a few phone calls. They were the hardest phone calls I ever made in my life.
‘Shortly after, the ambassador and Caoimhe arrived in and it eased the burden. As soon as I met them I knew they were good people. We were in each other’s pockets for four or five days and we got to know each other pretty well. I have two lifelong friends in those two people.’
Ambassador Cooney said: ‘He’s just an Irishman abroad, he’s bereaved, he’s traumatised, and then you get someone coming through the door who can talk to the local authorities with authority on behalf of the Irish government.’
The Thin Green Line is on RTÉ One on Thursday at 7pm.