The son of athletics legend Johnny Fox is seeking a meeting with the Taoiseach after finding screws, bolts and staples amongst his father’s ashes.

Mr Fox who coached Irish track star Rhasidat Adeleke and was one of the founders of Darkness Into Light died in April following a short illness.

The Tallaght man helped organise the first Darkness Into Light charity walk in 2009 with his wife Gertie after their son died Fergal died by suicide.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, his son Seán said he made a horrifying discovery after his father’s ashes were returned to him.

“What I found was, I opened them up and I found some screws, some staples and also some washers all mixed in together,” he said.

“Horrendous, unacceptable, worrying and just unbelievably traumatic.”

"Unacceptable"

He said he didn’t see his father on the day he died because he “didn’t want to see him that way”.

“I had a very good relationship with him, always treated him with the utmost of respect and I didn't want to see him that way,” he said.

“Then, when I opened up [the urn] and seen these things inside, just, I don't know that I can even find words to describe how I felt.

“It’s just completely, wholly unacceptable – unacceptable.”

"Horrendous"

Seán said he had opened the urn because his sisters wanted to place some of his ashes into special lockets so they could keep him with them.

He said the lockets come with a tiny little implement to let you pick up the ash – but when he opened the urn there were large pieces inside and he was forced to try to move thigs around.

“Then I hit something metal and I was like, ‘What was that?” he said.

“So, I moved it away and then there was a screw and I was almost physically sick. It was obviously very traumatic.

“So what I did then was I had to put gloves on - out of respect obviously - and I then had to place my two hands inside of my father's remains and begin to remove first one screw, then two screws and so forth.

“Then there were staples - umpteen staples - there were big staples and then there were smaller little staples as well.

“But it was just horrendous, absolutely horrendous and I felt like I had disrespected my father and I had never done that in my entire life.

“My entire life I spent respecting a man who had given so much of his life and to community, to mental awareness and I just felt like I disrespected him.

“I was made to disrespect him and that's just unacceptable.

“Something needs to be done so that this doesn't happen to some other family.”

Dublin Cemeteries Trust

The Dublin Cemeteries Trust, which is responsible for the crematorium involved has said it deeply regrets the stress and upset that has been cause to Seán’s family and has unreservedly apologised.

It said it is reviewing its processes and safeguards to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Seán said he does not accept the apology because he knows from talking to the trust that the issue that led to the screws being left in the ashes first came to light in January – with his father’s remains cremated in April.

“There was a hole in some of their equipment in January,” he said.

“They repaired it or patched it, or whatever way you want to put it, but I was told that even after they repaired it - this was from them - they had to put the remains into the cremulator twice because it still it wasn't getting broken up enough.

“So for someone to say to me, ‘We treat with the utmost of respect or with dignity,’ putting somebody in twice to do something that is supposed to be done once, that’s not dignity.”

Seán said he is raising the issue and seeking a meeting with the Taoiseach to ensure that other families do not have to go through the same experience.

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