Darragh’s Daddy, Mammy, his brothers Conor & Seán, wish to thank most sincerely all who sympathised with & supported us on our recent heart-breaking loss of Darragh and in the weeks since.  We extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who supported us with messages, calls & prayers during this very difficult time, to the hundreds who visited the Funeral Home, sent Mass Cards, travelled distances from all over Ireland, U.K., Australia and Japan to be with us, attended the funeral Mass, burial, made generous donations to St. Catherine’s Special School & those who could not join us in person but joined us virtually by webcam, thank you, we are humbled by the outpouring of support, generosity and love shown to us at this difficult time.

Sincere thanks to Fr David Brough for his beautiful funeral Mass, to Fr Pádraig Ó’Cochláin for his support & prayers during the funeral, also for the spiritual care you both gave to Darragh throughout his life. Our sincere thanks to Michael & Trish for the beautiful music & songs, especially Darragh’s favourite song ‘A sky full of stars’ he would have loved it. We acknowledge and gratefully appreciate An Taoiseach Simon Harris and his wife Caoimhe for their attendance and support.

We will be forever grateful for all the medical staff who took care of Darragh, especially Dr. Jean Donnelly, Dr. Mary Devins, Caoimhe Wade CNS and all in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Clare and all the team at Arklow Primary Care Centre, Dr Nick Buggle and staff at Sheltonville Surgery, Adrian Dunne Pharmacy and Laura Armstrong Pharmacy.  To the Community Palliative Nurses Deirdre and Valerie, from Wicklow Hospice our heartfelt gratitude for your care and kindness in ensuring Darragh was comfortable and for the fantastic support given to us as a family, you never left our side, we are eternally grateful.

A sincere thanks to Garda David Robinson, all in Arklow Garda Station and surrounding Garda Stations for the ‘silent blue light escort’ to and from the church and Little Blue Heroes (Alan & Annemarie) for the tribute to Honorary Garda Darragh Fitzgerald (HG24) at the graveside, it was beautiful. Thank you to An Garda Síochána, The Revival Gospel Choir and St. Catherine’s Special School for the guard of honour and the local businesses for their mark of respect on the day.

Our heartfelt gratitude to Helena and all at Hudson’s Funeral Directors for their kindness, sensitivity & professionalism in bringing Darragh home & throughout the funeral.  We will be forever grateful to Helena for her unwavering support, generosity of time, compassion and exceptional care shown to our beautiful boy Darragh and to each and every member of our family, especially Darragh’s heartbroken brothers.  Thank you to Joe & Tom for preparing Darragh’s final resting place. Thank you to William, the management & staff at The Arklow Bay Hotel for their hospitality.

We are eternally grateful to our wonderful family, friends & neighbours who visited our home, brought food and refreshments during the funeral and in the weeks since, we are humbled by the support we have received and continue to receive, this support has helped us so much during this very difficult time.

As it is impossible to thank everybody individually, please accept this acknowledgement as an expression of our deepest gratitude.

Darragh’s month’s mind Mass will be celebrated in The Church of Saints Mary & Peter, Arklow on Sunday 8th September 2024 at 11.30am.

“Darragh, you are the sky full of stars”