Marty Morrissey has shared the touching tribute he paid to his mother after her passing. The GAA commentator revealed that his mother was buried with a photograph of her with him and his late father as well as a copy of his book. ‘It’s Marty’ and a letter he wrote for her.
Chatting with the RTÉ Guide he spoke about why he decided to put a copy of his book with her; “After the book was published, she’d come in from Mass, pick it up and go out into the sun lounge. One day, I asked had she read it and she said, ‘I’m still reading it’.”
“And I said to her, ‘I bet you €100 that you’re only reading the bits about yourself!’ and she burst out laughing,” he joked.
“I put the book in the coffin with her, together with a photograph of the three of us. I wrote her a little letter and said I’d see her again someday.”
Marty’s mother Peggy, who was in her 90’s, passed away after a car crash last December. She was the sole occupant of the vehicle and it was a single car collision that happened in Annagh, Miltown Malbay, Co Clare during Storm Barra.
The RTÉ star recently opened up about her tragic death whilst on the Late Late Show. Speaking to Ryan Tubridy he revealed what happened on the night of her death. Explaining; “The storm was coming in and we agreed that I would go down, we’d stay together in the Old Ground(hotel) and I said I’d go and collect her but she said ‘no, no I’ll drive’.”
Deciding to meet up in Inagh which was just fifteen minutes from their home, he continued; “She was driving on a road that she drove three or four times a day and she missed a bend and unfortunately we lost her.”
Marty also revealed, when his mother didn’t arrive he went out looking for her and discovered the accident. “I went back when she wasn’t in Inagh and I kept driving and I came upon the accident and it was tough. I told her I loved her.”
View this post on Instagram
The Cork native also made sure to thank the emergency services, who were there at the scene. Saying; “The fire brigade were there, the ambulance, the Gardaí.”
“I do want to say this, they did their best to save my mum but I knew what she wanted, because she had a deep faith, much deeper than me. I asked them to say a prayer with me, once we had mum taken out of the car, we stood around and said a prayer together.”
“So I want to compliment and thank those frontline people who we forget how brave they are and how kind they are. So tonight, I want to salute the ambulance, who do it every day of the week, and the Gardaí, and the fire brigade.”
While Marty was open about how difficult the past few months have been, he also shared how touched he had been by the public outpouring of support and condolences.
Saying; “The generosity of the people of Ireland, that overwhelmed me, every day since mom died I’ve been getting mass cards, sometimes close to 125 cards per day. It wasn’t just the mass cards I got, it was the letters, I have read every letter, it was their stories of grief and tragedy that consoled me.”
