"Who is Patrick O'Connor?"
The role of the Mayo coroner, from 'covid' deaths to excess deaths
“Sorry, who is Patrick O’Connor?” - Dr Ronan Glynn
“He is a Coroner in Mayo” - Reporter
(NPHET briefing April 19 2021)
How quickly things change when a national newspaper asks pertinent questions.
An Taoiseach addresses excess deaths:
“It probably relates to the fact that RSV, influenza, and Covid are all circulating at the moment, against the backdrop of reduced immunity because people were socially distancing during the lockdowns, and also because there was a lot of unmet health need during the lockdowns which is now coming back at us. That is just my impression.” - January 31 2023.
Back in January 2021 as ‘covid’ death figures soared into unchartered territory, I began contacting coroners.
I was curious to know if these were in fact covid deaths, or deaths caused by some other means, namely - newly released and still in trial phase - covid 19 vaccines.
We had warnings from Norway that frail elderly people had died due to the common side effects linked to these vaccines, effects such as fever and fatigue.
The vaccine roll out in Ireland got underway in Irish nursing homes at the end of 2020 and death rates spiked through January and February 2021.
These deaths in Irish nursing homes were recorded as covid deaths, but as the classification included any death within 28 days of a positive PCR test, it was clear there could be room for anomalies.
But how many?
My question for coroners at this point was whether autopsies were being conducted following deaths post vaccination, to determine if vaccine side effects were playing a role as a contributory cause of death.
I wanted to know what exactly was killing elderly people in nursing homes in such alarming numbers.
I remember a grey January day and a conversation with a coroner, who chuckled ruefully when I asked if there would be postmortems conducted in deaths post vaccine, since the injection was technically an experimental procedure.
“We’d never have the resources,” he said.
Pathology resources are limited and additional restrictions were implemented at the outset of covid 19.
That conversation marked a seminal low, with the realisation that there was never going to be a way to prove whether these elderly people, isolated from their families, had died due to covid or from complications arising from the vaccines heralded as their saviour.
This line of inquiry lead to correspondence with solicitor Patrick O’Connor, Coroner for the Mayo district. A former president of the Law Society of Ireland, Mr O’Connor also served as vice-chairman of the Press Council of Ireland up until 2014.
On Sunday April 18 2021, the Sunday Independent and the Sunday Times carried an article based on Mr O’Connor’s questioning of covid death figures.
This was the first time the public health service's curious death counting was questioned by an independent figure who’s expertise could not be discounted.
The following day, Newstalk FM reporter Paul O’Donoghue, put the question to then Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn at the NPHET press briefing.
Reporter:
“I don’t know if you saw over the weekend there was a report from a Coroner from Mayo, called Patrick O’Connor.
“He was questioning the way covid death figures are calculated. He was basically implying that they were overstated. He said that if a person with a terminal illness who gets covid just before they die, it’s recorded as a covid death. He was basically saying that, they might not have died due to the virus.”
Dr Glynn: “Sorry, who is Patrick O’Connor?”
Reporter: “He is the Public Information Officer for the Coroner’s Society of Ireland. He is a Coroner in Mayo.”
Dr Glynn: “He’s a coroner. Okay.”
“We made it very clear from day one that we reported all deaths with or because of covid 19.”
“We took a particular view early on. We report in line with international guidance. Many other countries report differently. We’ve been entirely transparent throughout, about the way we in which we report covid deaths.
“Ultimately and as we have said many times, it will be an assessment of excess deaths that will be the key determinant of how this disease has impacted on our population. And given that we have just come through a very significant wave, we need to wait for another number of months to fully assess the impact of covid on our overall death rates.”
“We had significant excess mortality in the first six weeks of this year (2021.) That won’t come as a surprise to anybody. But equally if there is an inference in any way that because people with underlying conditions die with covid and that in some shape or form we shouldn’t be reporting those deaths, because people had underlying conditions well I would completely and utterly dispute that. Now I don’t know if that’s what’s being said. But in the past there has been this kind of implied assertion that we really shouldn’t be reporting people with underlying conditions because for whatever reason, that’s not as important.
“I think that’s a very dangerous pathway for us to go down as a society.”
“Certainly there are a proportion of our deaths where people died with covid as oppose to of covid.
“In time, we can look at all of this. But it’s not that we haven’t been transparent in our reporting process since early on in the pandemic,” Dr Glynn replied.
Time passed and we did look.
Subsequent analysis of CSO figures found that the Coroner was correct in his assertion that covid death figures were inflated.
The day after that question was put to Dr Glynn at the NPHET briefing, RTE ran an unusual item on the topic of excess deaths, claiming new analysis showed 3,200 excess deaths were linked to covid. Researcher Gerard McCarthy, an oceanographer based at Maynooth University, provided the figures for the item broadcast on Prime Time.
But others monitoring excess deaths at that time disputed his figures.
To follow up the Coroner’s assertion that death rates were inflated, I pitched a story to the Sunday Independent countering RTE’s excess mortality figures.
This pitch was accepted and there followed three days of intense analysis of figures and data, cross referencing, and questions for those backing statistics on either side of the argument.
The article argued that there was no significant excess mortality throughout 2020 and as such, Dr Glynn’s assertion that we needed to wait a ‘couple of months’ in order to assess the impact of covid on our death rates was not necessary.
However, it’s worth noting that, within that ‘couple of months,’ window, the vaccine roll out would be largely complete.
This article was accepted for publication with a few minor changes. Before it was due to be printed in the Sunday April 25 2021 edition, the article was pulled with a brief explanation from the editor, relating to the questions regarding the credibility of provider of the RIP.ie statistics.
I had treble checked the figures with multiple sources to the point that I was secure putting my name to the story, an article that could have cut through the prevailing narrative of the time, that covid was a deadly disease and vaccines (secured through billion euro secret contracts with pharmaceutical companies) were required to reopen society.
(*Link to this unpublished article provided below.)
Yesterday, the Irish Examiner published a story from reporter Ann Murphy featuring comments from Coroners Patrick O’Connor in Mayo and Philip Comyn in Cork, regarding spiralling excess mortality figures.
This follows a front page article by reporter Tom Shiel in the Connacht Tribune on the same topic last week.
Kilkenny based accountant Patrick E Walsh had been tracking excess deaths locally and raising the issue through Kilkenny Press platform for many weeks before.
The issue is not unique to Ireland. According to the mortality monitoring hub EuroMOMO, many European countries show elevated levels of excess mortality up to 35% across all age groups throughout 2022.
Coroners Comyn and O’Connor will be familiar to readers of this Substack as both are conducting investigations into deaths post vaccine.
Mr O’Connor was interviewed on RTE Radio's News at One on Monday.
“I know my colleague down in Cork Philip Comyn has noticed a significant spike in the number of deaths reported to him in the month of January and my own figures have gone up by 37% from last year and last year was quite a significant year itself.
“In 2022, 56 deaths were reported to me for the month of January. This year alone so far I’ve had 89 reports and the month isn’t over,” Mr O’Connor told RTE.
Is it time now, to return to that NPHET briefing, at which Dr Glynn stated that it will be ‘an assessment of excess deaths that will be the key determinant of how this disease has impacted on our population’?
And should we apply his same logic to the NPHET backed government policies that have no doubt affected mortality rates?
It would be remiss then, for any discussion on excess deaths, not to include an exploration of the role played by the most radical health policy ever implemented in the history of the state - the roll out of trial phase covid 19 vaccines.
*
Warm thanks to those that continue to support my work, it is much appreciated.
*
After six months writing articles on Substack, I have enabled payments.
The options are €8 p/month or €80 p/annum and a founding subscription gesture if you really appreciate what I do. Most posts will remain free but I will add extra for paid subscriber access only - mostly about my experience of (attempted) reporting in Ireland during the covid era alongside other topics.
There is no pressure to sign up. I love the direct link to people that ‘buy me a coffee’ especially the little personal notes from readers. Thank you all.
*
The story that never made it to print, for Sunday Independent edition April 25 2021
Further links and background reading:
Concern re covid vaccine safety in Norway
CUH inquests show patients tested positive as part of hospital admission process
Health Freedom Ireland ‘Nursing Home Deaths 2021’
Hi Louise I've been following you from the beginning and as a funeral director I have witnessed the excess deaths and lack of post mortums. I have shared articles on FB from the Kildare and mayo Coroner and been ridiculed. My own husband works in health care and had a serious adverse reaction seven days after his 2nd vaccine this was in March 2021. I've been de-platformed from FB, twitter and YouTube and I hope that people are waking up now. Thank you for everything you do.
And Euro momo 0-15 and 15-45 years old tells a story when the spike in deaths started.. in people in the prime of their lives