Cork, IE – Christine Kavanagh, a mother from Cork, is mourning the loss of her third son, as her 36-year-old son Damien died this week. Damien, originally from Gurranabraher, had been living in Wales since 2019 after moving there for a fresh start following a long battle with substance abuse. Sadly, he was found in his flat on Wednesday.
For Christine, this news reopens deep wounds that have not yet healed. In 2016, her 31-year-old son Ross, a father of two, died due to a medical episode linked to epilepsy. Just five years later, in 2021, her son Leon, also 31 at the time, passed away after struggling with issues related to drugs and homelessness. The loss of Damien marks the third time Christine has faced the unimaginable grief of burying one of her children.
Speaking on Cork’s Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s RedFM. Christine shared the overwhelming pain she’s enduring. “I don’t think I can take any more,” she said, her voice breaking with sorrow. “My heart is broken. Our world has ended. Our hearts are crushed.”
Christine described how Damien had turned his life around in recent years, getting clean and finding stability in Wales. He had secured a beautiful apartment and seemed to be thriving. “He got clean, he got a beautiful apartment, he had everything going for him,” she shared, her words filled with both pride and heartbreak. The grieving mother had plans to visit Damien later this month, something she now deeply regrets not having done sooner. “I’d always be saying, Damien, I will come over. He’d be saying, Mam, you always say that,” she recalled. In a bittersweet moment, she recounted their last conversation, full of laughter and lightness. “I was onto him the week of Christmas and I said, Damien, I got Botox done – and he said, Mam, you’re 65. And he was laughing. I said I’m getting my lips done, and he was skitting laughing. Little did I know, yesterday I was getting that phone call…”
The call, informing her of Damien’s death, was one she initially struggled to comprehend. Christine said she thought there may have been a mistake, that perhaps they had mixed up the names. But as the reality set in, she was confronted with the incomprehensible – losing yet another son. “They are my three eldest boys, my three eldest children, Ross then Leon then Damien. I said ‘why me?’” she tearfully shared.
An investigation into Damien’s death is currently underway, and while the cause remains unknown, Christine is left to grieve the son she had hoped was on a path to healing. As she copes with this new wave of grief, she also worries about her fourth son, Dylan, who has faced his own battle with drugs and recently survived an overdose.
The Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust has stepped in to assist Christine in bringing Damien’s body home to Cork. The trust, founded by Colin Bell after the tragic death of his own son, Kevin, in New York in 2013, helps families with the financial costs of repatriating the bodies of loved ones who die abroad. The charity has since brought over 2,000 remains home to grieving families, including nearly 300 in 2024 alone.
For Christine Kavanagh, the journey of grief seems endless, as she now faces the painful task of laying her third son to rest. But with the support of her community and organizations like the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust, she hopes to bring Damien home, to be reunited with his brothers, Ross and Leon, who left this world far too soon.