Son dies after fall on eve of mother’s funeral
The Cloonfad community in west Roscommon have been plunged into deep sadness by the tragic death of a 44-year-old man following a freak accident on Monday afternoon.
The sequence of events started on Sunday when Mary Bowens, of Pollanalty, Cloonfad, died unexpectedly in St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin.
On Monday at around 3 pm, her son Pa Bowens was putting up lights at the side of her house in the Pollanalty townland, in preparation for her wake, when he fell from a ladder and onto the concrete below.
He sustained serious head injuries and was brought by air ambulance to Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, where he died on Wednesday at 7 am. Pa leaves behind a widow and two young children, who are aged five and two.
“The whole place has been numbed by what has happened – a mother dying and then to lose the son the following day,” said a family friend.
At the time of going to press, Pa’s remains had not yet been released.
A post mortem examination is to be conducted and it is likely the funeral will take place over the weekend.
