A YOUNG dad collapsed and died from a suspected heart attack while chasing “ruthless” teen thugs who had terrorised his family’s home.
Sean Feeney, 29, lost his life in the street a short distance from his house, which yobs had been pelting with stones in Cluain Ard, Cobh, Co Cork.
His heartbroken partner Sam Byrne described finding him slumped in the road on September 3 shortly before he was pronounced dead despite the “best efforts” of Gardai, medics and ambulance crew.
She said: “I followed him out and stood at the corner of the road thinking he would come back around the corner and say something.
“But there was no sign of him coming and a little guy came to me, saying ‘he is on the ground, he’s on the ground’. I just ran down the road and there was two or three young girls had him in a recovery position.”
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She added: “He has a little four-year-old who is without his dad.”
Sean and Sam had been subjected to a campaign of harassment, with teens throwing rocks at their home, ringing the bell and then running away.
Explaining the trauma her family had been through, Sam said: “So basically where we are living in Cobh, there is a gang of youths who are terrorising the area.
"They are just ruthless in what they are doing to us. We live in an estate where it is a walk through from one part of town to the next. We’re on the corner.
“We were getting a tirade that weekend of stones being thrown at the house on the Saturday night while my mam and me were there because Sean was away with his family for his dad’s 60th birthday.
"Whatever they threw at the house a picture came off the wall — it was that bad.”
She said when Sean returned home on the Sunday evening he was in a happy mood.
She said: “He was great. And then it started. You could hear them running up and down the side of the house and next thing stones were being thrown at the door.
"There was a knick-knock a few minutes later, then another one. This is knocking and running away, like kids of seven or eight do, but these are teenagers.
“Sean was in the kitchen and he just ran out to try and find out who they were.
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“This time he ran after them and when he got to the top of the road, unfortunately it looked like he suffered a heart attack and he died on the side of the road.”
'TRIED TO SAVE HIM'
Speaking about her partner, Sam said: “He was the softest guy ever and he wouldn’t have done anything to them. He just wanted to know who they were because it had been happening so much and for so long.
“I just ran down the road and there was two or three young girls had him in a recovery position. They rang the ambulance and they were giving them instructions. The guards came up and took over. They tried their best to save him and they couldn’t.
She said at first she didn’t realise Sean was dead, saying: “I genuinely thought he would end up in CUH for a few days.”
Speaking to Neil Prendeville on Cork’s Red FM who told her he had been sent videos from Cobh of “herds of young teenagers”, Sam replied that the town was “fantastic” and the support she had received was incredible.
But she said people are angry over the behaviour of the youths and just want to live in their homes in peace.
Sam added that a vigil for Sean, at which a priest will say a few prayers, is being held on Sunday at 7pm at the entrance to the Cuan Ard estate.
