My dear son, Tadhg, died on 19 June. He went to sleep and didn’t wake up. Below is my speech at his funeral which I hope will go some way to show you what Tadhg was really like.

I cannot find the words to express the intense pain and sense of loss that I, and I’m sure all of you feel at the moment. But I know for certain that Tadhg would not want us to dwell on those feelings. Today should be a day filled with happy memories of Tadhg. It may be a surprise to some of you that Tadhg’s father, Nick, and I were punks. What we did to deserve a hippy like Tadhg I’ll never know. Tadhg was spiritual, loved the alternative way of life. He loved life and enjoyed living it, sometimes living it a little too much! He was fun loving and caring and there wasn’t a day when he didn’t make me laugh. He liked to meditate and keep fit. He was studying organic horticulture part time. He had so many plans for our little farm, he wanted to grow plants to make tinctures, oils and alternative therapies. He wanted our home to be a welcoming retreat for those in need. We fought about some of his ideas, I agreed with the sweat lodge and the keep-fit, not too sure about the old bath, that he found and brought back, and wanted to use as an ice bath. I was definitely not happy about turning the barn into a festival venue with people being bussed in from Bray and we had major rows about the many variations of slides, grass, water, fun, that he wanted to make use of the steep slopes on our land. Tadhg was a vegetarian and a health fanatic, he had in-depth knowledge of nutrition and supplements. He loved to cook, many of his dishes were memorable, some for all the wrong reasons. I marveled at how he could eat an 18 egg omelette in one sitting and then give out to him for using all the eggs!

Tadhg was a true wild child. He was my soul mate. I love him and I miss him. My son, Tadhg.