A 79-year-old father of five had been dead for at least six months when his body was discovered in his flat, an inquest was told on Thursday.
Cork Coroner’s Court heard former caretaker George Harrington passed away in his home on a date unknown in November last year until his remains were found on May 14.
Coroner Philip Comyn said it was troubling the absence of Mr Harrington was not registered in the community.
He lived in a flat at Imaal Court in the Glen on the northside of the city – situated above the Glen Resource Centre which is a hive of activity.
The inquest heard the pensioner went to a post office to collect his pension and regularly picked up prescriptions at a local pharmacy.
He brought out bins at the centre and had been very active and well- known locally. Mr Comyn described Mr Harrington as having been enveloped in a “cloak of anonymity” – a development he admitted he found “troubling”.
He 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 May 14 over concerns about his welfare.
The car owned by the pensioner appeared not to have been moved and the tax and NCT disks had expired.
It had moss and mould growing on it. From outside the property Mr Harrington could see there was a build up of post in the flat.
He raised the alarm and gardai found his dad dead inside.
The deceased’s daughter, Mary Cullinane, gave evidence that she had picked up her father from the Mercy University Hospital in Cork on November 14 last year.
She emphasised to him the need to keep in more regular contact as they didn’t know he had been in hospital, adding: “He would contact us when he wanted to contact us.”
