A coroner has expressed concern after hearing two inquests in a week involving pensioners dying in their homes and remaining undiscovered for around six months.
Cork Coroner's Court heard today that former caretaker, George Harrington, had lain dead in his flat from a date unknown in November of last year until his body was discovered on 14 May last.
Coroner Philip Comyn said that it was troubling that the absence of the 79-year-old was not registered in the community.
The father-of-five lived in a flat at Imaal Court in The Glen on the northside of Cork city. The flat is located above the Glen Resource Centre.
The inquest heard the pensioner went to a post office to collect his pension weekly and regularly went to a pharmacy to pick up prescriptions. He brought out bins at the centre and had been very active and well known locally.
Mr Comyn described the pensioner as having been enveloped in a "cloak of anonymity" - a development he admitted he found "troubling."
The coroner said: "At the end of the day, nobody realised he was missing. He had not collected his pension or medicines for six months and no alarm bells rang.
"None of the people who had interactions with him seemed to have missed him and that perhaps is the greatest tragedy of this inquest."
Les Harrington, a son of the deceased, went to his father's flat on 14 May last amid concerns for his welfare.
The car owned by the pensioner appeared not to have been moved and the tax and NCT disks had expired. The car had moss and mould growing on it.
From outside the property, Les could see that there was a build up of post in the flat.
He raised the alarm and gardaí found the body of Mr Harrington inside.
Les said his father had been very active in the community at one point in his life. However, he did not mingle as much in the years before his death because he feared infection arising out of his COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).
He described his father as a self-sufficient man who was not isolated from society. It is understood the family were always available to him but he was not good at keeping in contact.
Mr Harrington's daughter, Mary Cullinane, gave evidence that she had picked up her father from the Mercy University Hospital in Cork on 14 November 2018.
She emphasised to him the need to keep in more regular contact as they did not know that he had been in hospital. She told the court that her father would only contact his family when he wanted them.
"We would contact him by text - sometimes you would get an answer, sometimes you would not. It would not be unusual to have no contact from him. He would contact us when he wanted to contact us."
She said her father would not take Meals on Wheels or avail of the services of the district health nurse as he refused to acknowledge his advancing years. She said he always made sure that his utility bills were up to date.
Garda Michael Nagle told the inquest that he found Mr Harrington in his bathrobe and pyjamas on the floor of the kitchen. His body was in an advanced state of decomposition. He stated that there was no sign of forced entry or foul play.
The garda said that milk in the fridge had an expiry date of 23 November and the last opened post was 14 November. The earliest unopened post was 19 November.
Mr Harrington had last collected his medication from a pharmacy in Ballyvolane on 14 November. He last attended at the post office to collect his pension on 16 November. His final visit to his GP was on 16 October 2018.
Poignantly a calendar was found where Mr Harrington marked off each day. The last day that had been ticked off was 18 November.
Coroner Philip Comyn commended Gda Nagle for his vigorous and comprehensive investigation in the case.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster carried out a post-mortem examination on the deceased. She said the body was in too advanced a state of decomposition to allow her to establish an exact cause of death.
However, there was no evidence of any trauma or foul play. She said Mr Harrington probably died of cardiac arrest.
She said it was impossible to determine the date of death but given the decomposition of the body it was consistent with Mr Harrington passing away in November.
An open verdict was recorded in the case.
Separately an inquest in the Coroner's Court last week heard that the body of 84-year-old Ritchie Scanlon lay undiscovered at his home for up to seven months.
Mr Scanlon, of Madden's Buildings on the northside of Cork, was found dead on 19 July.
The decomposition of the body was accelerated by the fact that an electric heater was still switched on at the house.
