A DUBLIN MAN who was prevented from seeing his brother before he died from coronavirus has blasted the participants of 'Golf-Gate', branding the situation "a disgrace".
Padraig Byrne was infamously spotted back in April heartbreakingly standing on a bench outside a hospital window to say a final goodbye to his brother Francis who had died from Covid-19.
He was unable enter the facility due to restrictions put in place to try and curb the spread of the virus.
Now, an angry Padraig has hit out at those who attended the dinner, demanding that the attendees apologise to those who lost family members during the height of the crisis and were unable to visit them before they died.
"When you think of this golfing outing and imagine them all dressed up in their shirts and ties and wining and dining - when my brother passed away he was wrapped in the sheets he passed away in," Padraig told RTE's Liveline.
"The body bag was just zipped up there was no suit or fine clothes sent in.
"We had to abide by restrictions and the rules and yet these people can go around wining and dining.
"It is an absolute disgrace.
"These people should come up to Tallaght hospital or any other hospital and apologise to the frontline workers," he said.
Padraig's brother Francis died from Covid-19 last week. Padraig coudn't visit him due to the restrictions and only saw his brother though the hospital window after he had passed away.#liveline#COVID19 @joeliveline pic.twitter.com/6Yzt9JfZCb
— Liveline (@rteliveline) April 8, 2020
"The frontline workers are wearing masks up to 12 hours a day to stop the spread of Covid and abide by the rules and yet these people have rules for themselves and can do what they want."
During the early weeks of the coronavirus crisis in Ireland, people were not only unable to visit loved ones in hospital, but were also unable to attend their funerals too - including Padraig.
"There was no funeral when my brother passed away, that was the end of it. No family seen him," he said.
"He was taken down to the mortuary and that was the end of it. The restrictions were very tight at the time and we had to go along with it.
"Young people are mixing a bit more and what message is it sending to them, 'we can all have parties now'.
"There's too much at risk and these are our leaders and they knew what they were doing. They should not have gone ahead with that. I can’t understand how Micheal Martin didn’t hear about this."
