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Irishman’s death related to his undocumented status?

By Noreen Bowden | February 1, 2008

A Boston journalist has written a moving tribute to an undocumented immigrant who died in the US city at the age of 33.

Kevin Cullen says, “Eddie Treacy lived in the shadows and died in his bed, the covers pulled up, his lungs full of fluid.” The Athenry native had arrived in Dorchester eight years ago. He was a talented carpenter who loved hurling and would spend after-work time at the Eire Pub.

Cullen writes:

We will never know if it was stubborn pride or a fear of being deported that kept him from going to a hospital to treat the pneumonia that killed him. Maybe he just didn’t realize how sick he was.

 After the funeral, he says,

about 200 people posed on the front steps of the church for a photo to send back to Eddie’s mother, Ann, so she would know that Eddie mattered here.

Cullen concludes:

On Monday night, as President Bush told the nation that we need to find “a sensible and humane way to deal with people here illegally,” Eddie Treacy’s body was in the cargo hold of Aer Lingus Flight 132, somewhere over the Atlantic, heading home.

The article was also published in the Irish Times.

Read the entire article on the Boston Globe website.

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