Following the urgent nationwide appeal to find relatives of missing man Stephen Corrigan - whose remains were found in Rathmines in April - a first cousin priest has been tracked down and says he "wants to do the right" and bury his long-lost relative properly.
The skeletal remains, discovered on common ground by people carrying out operational works at Lissenfield near Lower Rathmines Road, were identified as that of The Weir Home patient on Cork Street who had been missing since 2011 thanks to a DNA sample given by his late mother, Hanna.
Tragic Stephen, who suffered from mental health difficulties and would have turned 57 this year, was only survived by his mother and brother Edward who both had sadly died since his disappearance on November 22 of that year.
But Finders International, a world leading professional probate genealogist firm with an office in Dublin, has successfully traced living relative - Father Brendan Corrigan.
The Westmeath based priest is a first cousin of Stephen's mother but admitted he did not see the Garda appeal nor had he ever heard of Stephen.
The parish priest of Kilbreggan said: “It is such a sad story.
"I would really like to have a funeral for Stephen and arrange for gravestones, if needed, for his mother and brother too."
He added "I’d like to do the right thing.”
Following the grim find in April, the Garda Technical Bureau and a forensic anthropologist confirmed the remains were in fact human.
The bones were then removed to Dublin City Mortuary with a post-mortem completed on Tuesday, 21 April but it was only at the start of July that Gardai were able to confirm that it was Stephen's body that had been dumped in such a cruel way.
Despite sadly never knowing his first cousin and now never being able to, Brendan did meet Stephen’s grandfather, George, many years ago.
Brendan continued: ”I do remember George coming to stay with us when I was young. My father and George were brothers.
"To this day I’m not sure why George lived with us for a time, but I suppose as a child we didn’t really ask questions."
Stephen was born in 1963 to a single mother, Hanna Corrigan, a daughter of George and Johanna, who died in 2015 aged 81.
George and Johanna married in Dublin in 1932.
Stephen’s only sibling, Edward, who was six years younger than him, died in 2016 at the age of 46.
Brendan was tracked down following the tremendous work by Finders International who discovered that most of Stephen's family had emigrated to the UK.
Hayley Seager of Finders International in Dublin, said: “The relatives we found immediately are mostly on Stephen’s maternal grandfather’s side of the family.
"The Corrigan family tree is pretty extensive.
"We also know that most of the Stephen’s grandfather’s family emigrated to the UK, with grandfather George and granduncle Michael Corrigan both working for Ford in Dagenham."
Stephen’s remains are currently being kept at the Dublin City Morgue.
