The family of a man who went missing in 1992 aged 35 after an Easter visit home recently learned that he took on a new name and died in the UK two years ago.
Patrick (Patsy) O’Sullivan’s last-known contact with his family was in his native Lombardstown, Co Cork, in April 1992.
He had been working in Killarney, Co Kerry, and visited the family home on the Easter Bank Holiday weekend that year.
Patsy was due to return home for a christening a few weeks later, but his family never saw him again.
READ MORE
Patsy often went away to work for several weeks at a time, in different locations. The talented chef maintained contact with his family and returned home every few months.
He was “full of life”, a much-loved middle child in a family of seven who loved dancing and cooking.
His family never gave up looking for him. As recently as two years ago, his siblings Eugene and Jerry O’Sullivan issued a fresh appeal for information about their missing brother on RTÉ’s Crimecall.
They said it was “heartbreaking” not to know what had become of their beloved brother, who they described as having a “heart of gold”.
The mystery of what became of him was recently solved when the surviving siblings were told he had been located deceased in the UK.
His brother Jerry told the Opinion Line with PJ Coogan on Cork’s 96FM that Patsy died of sepsis on July 5th, 2024.
Poignantly, at the time of his death, he was living an hour’s drive away from another of their brothers who also lived in the UK. That brother also died, last year.
Jerry said that the family still has “a lot of unanswered questions” relating to Patsy.
“We waited so long for this [news]. It is a closure for us, that we were looking [for] for so long. He died of natural causes. He had underlying health conditions and died from sepsis.
“What we have found is that he changed his name in 1995 to Patrick Aldridge, which was the [surname] of his partner. His partner died in 2022.
“The solace we can take is that he lived his life – and it was a good life as far as we can gather. Starting off a new life by himself and leaving everything behind him. That must not have been easy.
“We always hoped that one day he would turn up at an event we were having, or whatever the case may be. Or get a phone call. But it never happened, unfortunately for us.”
Jerry believes Patsy may have started a new life in the UK because being gay wasn’t as accepted in the Ireland of the early 1990s as it would be now. Homosexuality was only decriminalised in Ireland the year after Patsy disappeared.
The O’Sullivan family say they had no issue with Patsy being gay.
Jerry said he could not thank gardaí enough for all of their efforts relating to the case over the years.
“They are an incredible team. Garda PJ Roche in Mallow took over the case in 2015. He has been a breath of fresh air because he went above and beyond.
“The team who came in with him left no stone unturned until he [Patsy] was found. This was incredible for us as a family. I never thought we would see the day that we would get closure.”
Investigating gardaí thanked the media and the public for their assistance with the case over the years.
