Lord of the Dance star Michael Flatley has spoken of his heartache following the death of his mother at the age of 80.
He announced the news on a post of Facebook and wrote about his grief at her loss, just a year after his father passed away.
Flately said that, "My dear mother Eilish passed away this morning. She is now with my father in heaven. Words cannot express myself and my family's sadness at this time. May God rest her soul."
Eilish Flatley was from Co Carlow and emigrated to the US in 1947 with Sligo native Michael Flatley Snr.
He passed away in March last year as a result of congestive heart failure and was laid to rest in the village of St Mullins in Co Carlow, close to the ancestral home of his wife.
During his eulogy at his father's funeral, Michael Flately described his late Dad as "my hero".
"My Mom has been a pillar and strength through all of this. I loved my father, he was my hero.
“He was a strong Irish man, proud and driven. He left Co Sligo back in 1947 with nothing but an inexorable drive and determination that he could make it in the new world of America", he said.
Both Michael Flately's mother and grandmother were champion Irish dancers and he began taking lessons when he was eleven, which led him to become the first American to win the Irish Dance World Championships six years later.
