'I will carry this pain for the rest of my life,' wife of man killed in farm accident tells Cork court

A tragic accident that led to the death of a beloved father-of-three has had a devastating impact on the deceased man’s family, a district court in Cork has heard.

Patricia Flynn, wife of the late Declan Flynn of Curragh, Lissarda, Co Cork, read an emotional victim impact statement at Macroom District Court.

Mr Flynn died following a fall from the roof of a neighbour’s farm building which he was helping to renovate in April 2020. Declan Flynn was helping out at the farm of Mary O’Riordan, aged 62, also of Curragh, Lissarda.

On the afternoon of the incident he was removing nails from some galvanised sheeting with another man, John Kingston, when a beam underneath Mr Flynn gave way and he fell approximately five metres to the floor below and sustained serious head injuries. 

Mr Flynn was taken to Cork University Hospital where he died as a result of the injuries on May 5, 2020.

Patricia Flynn told the court that she had to sell the family home and move because passing the site of the accident on a daily basis was just too painful for her to bear. She said that the impact of her husband’s death has been particularly hard on their eldest son who had required medical treatment throughout his life.

She told the court that the accident had “devastated us” and “truly changed us” and that Declan was in her thoughts when she wakes up every morning and every night when she goes to sleep. She said that the hardest thing she ever had to do was tell her children their father was dead and the scene she witnessed in the farmyard would “haunt me forever”. 

She added: “I will carry this pain for the rest of my life.”

Defence solicitor Jack Purcell said that his client Mary O’Riordan had also been deeply impacted by the accident. He said if she had known she would not have allowed either man onto the roof that day. 

Ms O’Riordan pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to two charges under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 both relating to a failure to discharge a duty.

Judge Joanne Carroll said she had been deeply impacted by reading Patricia Flynn’s victim impact statement where she said that “to the world Declan was a person but to her and her children, he was everything”. The judge said it was clear Declan was a decent man and he was helping a neighbour when the tragedy happened.

Judge Carroll said it was an awful tragedy but it could have been avoided if adequate measures were put in place, but they were not. She acknowledged that Mary O’Riordan would “turn back the clock” if she could and that the fines she was about to impose in no way reflect the tragedy the Flynn family had suffered. 

Mary O’Riordan was fined a total of €4,250 and given six months to pay.