RTE sports presenter Evanne Ni Chuilinn has opened up about the tragic loss of her brother Cormac, who sadly took his own life in October 2013 at the tender age of 29.
The broadcaster explained in an emotional interview with Ray Darcy on Radio One that her brother had suffered from depression from an early age this had a crushing effect on his daily life. Evanne said that once Cormac turned nine or ten he was very unhappy. She was joined in studio by her father Cathal and they both explained that they can take solace from the fact that he is no longer in pain.
“I try to think about him as a child. We were great buddies. We would have done everything together and that’s what I go to now, when I think about Cormac,” she said. “I try to go back to that because he was a really happy child.”
During the interview Evanne bravely explained about what it was like to lose someone so close to her to suicide, and that as hard as her family tried, they just couldn’t understand the pain he was going through. “We were devastated but you have to try to understand how he was, he just wasn’t able to stay. We tried to keep him with us for as long as we could but he just wasn’t able to stay.”
Evanne and her father also spoke about waking Cormac at home for two days, following his death. Evanne said she didn’t want to leave his side because she had never seen his face so free of worry.
“We waked him at home for two nights in the house in the sitting room and I didn’t want to leave his side because I’d never seen his face so peaceful or without worry, his brow wasn’t furrowed. That weight was gone from his shoulders and he was definitely at peace.”
