Bride’s father dies on wedding dance floor just hours after walking daughter up aisle

UK:  A tragic father of the bride collapsed on and died on the dance floor of his daughter's wedding reception, hours after he had walked her up the aisle.

Karen O’Brien was sharing the dance floor with her 70-year old father, Tommy O’Brien, last Saturday when he suffered from a suspected heart attack.

Hours earlier, he had walked his only daughter up the aisle in County Clare to marry Mike O’Halloran, reports the Irish Mirror.

The dance floor at the Bunratty Castle Hotel was cleared and celebrations were ended, however, to allow an off-duty nurse and others work a defibrillator to try to revive the grand-dad before an ambulance and paramedics arrived.

But the father of two, who was waiting on a heart bypass operation, never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) later that night.

Now the devastated family is preparing for his funeral on Wednesday - at the same church where they wed.

Mr O’Brien’s wife, Noreen and only son, Eoin, were also present at the celebrations when he collapsed.

Karen - still in her wedding dress - and other members of the O’Brien family - travelled to UHL to be with Mr O’Brien.

Karen and Mike had booked a honeymoon to Mexico but are instead preparing for his funeral mass on Wednesday.

Local man, Sonny Scanlan, had just arrived at the hotel last Saturday for the ‘afters’ of the wedding celebrations when he was met by crowds of people leaving the function room and he was told what had just happened.

A friend of the O’Brien family, Mr Scanlan said the village of Quin is “numb and dumb-founded” around the death of Mr O’Brien and the circumstances involved.

The retired Fine Gael councillor said that Mr O’Brien - a former Shannon Airport employee - was on a waiting list for a heart by-pass.

He said: “Tommy was very much involved in the community.

"He was a very popular man and he got on with everyone. It is very sad for the family and is just awful what has happened.”

Friend of the family and local shop owner, Ger O’Halloran said that “there is as much a sense of shock in Quin today as there is a sense of loss”.

He said: “The very unfortunate set of events make Tommy’s passing even more difficult.”

Mr O’Halloran is chairman of local soccer club, Rhine Rovers that recently made Tommy Life President in honour of his contribution to the club over 34 years.

He said: “Tommy was absolutely thrilled to get that honour and it was so well deserved.

"He was a founding member of the club.

"Tommy was one of the ‘go to’ people in the community if you wanted something done. He was a real ‘roll up your sleeves’ type of man.”

Mr O’Halloran said that Tommy was “very involved in life in Quin” and was a corner back in the local team that won the county junior hurling championship in 1978.

He remarked: “Tommy was an old style corner back that played the man as much as the ball.”

Mr O’Halloran said that the Rhine Rovers club is to provide a guard of honour at Tommy’s funeral on Wednesday.