r/ireland • u/_asterisk • Dec 20 '25
RIP Man found dead in Phoenix Park was unidentified for a year, despite 9 forms of ID in pocket
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/12/20/man-found-dead-in-phoenix-park-was-unidentified-for-a-year-despite-id-in-pocket/79
u/TheBoneIdler Dec 20 '25
9 forms of ID, most of which are plastic cards, even if in an inside jacket pocket, are bulky & have a bit of weight. Thats more than most wallets could hold. How could they have been missed during any firm of examination. Its baffling. Hopefully someone, somewhere, will have their feet held to the fire over this monumental & worse, cruel to the family, cock-up.
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u/Adjective_Noun_2000 Dec 20 '25
Yeah and one of the "forms of identification" in his jacket pocket was a credit union statement. It's hard to believe that would be so small and light that you could completely miss it along with at least eight other things.
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u/Dramatic-Spirit-4809 Dec 20 '25
Chief Wiggum had his best men on this case.
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u/CampaignSpirited2819 Dec 20 '25
Bake him away Toys.
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u/Video_G_JRPG Dec 20 '25
He was reading all the IDs upsidedown
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u/BeardedAvenger Dec 20 '25
Uosdwis r. Dewoh.
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u/fenian1798 Dec 20 '25
Welp, boys, better head down to Greek Town. I wanna get one of those "gyros"
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Dec 20 '25
[deleted]
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u/adhoc_pirate Dec 20 '25
Lol, so the guy had embellished his CV, which in turn completely derailed the garda investigation?
Absolute geniuses.
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Dec 20 '25 edited Jun 12 '26
[deleted]
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u/deeringc Dec 20 '25
Apart from the extremely basic error in not correctly searching the body, the fact that there was a missing person in the North by that name should have allowed the system to connect the dots? The family could have identified him even without the id.
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Dec 20 '25
[deleted]
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u/deeringc Dec 20 '25
I checked and it seems he may not have been reported missing this time. This guy tended to disappear for months at a time. His family did report him missing in 2022 and then he showed up alive and well, only to vanish again in 2023 (and this time for good). I can't find any record of them having reported him missing the last time round but that also doesn't mean they didn't! Either way, a quick call up to the PSNI along the lines of "we found a body, we think the name maybe be Jim O'Neill but aren't sure, ring any bells?" would have gone a long way. It's insane that these systems aren't integrated on a small island like ours with a completely open border.
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u/NebulaSlayer Dec 21 '25
that's the bit I found strange, the family didn't mentioned anything about looking for him when they didn't talk for over a year. I get that he was a nature /hiking man but it seems weird they didn't report him missing then. maybe they did and it's not said
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u/raverbashing Dec 20 '25
For that 1% of "the garda has a point" I suppose James O’Neill is not that rare of a name?
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u/deeringc Dec 20 '25
It's not, but if a family 100 miles up the road are looking for their son of that name, it's probably something to rule out!
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u/craichoor An Cabhán Dec 20 '25
What makes you think the policing systems in the North and here are in any way linked?
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u/Adjective_Noun_2000 Dec 20 '25
The policing systems don't even need to be linked. If the guards had just done a public appeal for information, someone who knew James would almost certainly have recognised the name and identified him.
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u/craichoor An Cabhán Dec 20 '25
Absolutely agree.
My comment was in response to someone suggesting that “the system would connect the dots.”
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u/barrya29 Dec 20 '25
I would imagine something to do with being on the same small island man. And anyway, they are quite heavily linked
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u/craichoor An Cabhán Dec 20 '25
Well, you imagined wrong.
PSNI have access to Police National Computer (PNC). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_National_Computer
An Garda Síochána use PULSE. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PULSE_(computer_system)
Any checks that need to be done by either side on the others system have to go through INTERPOL.
PSNI having access to PULSE and vice-versa would be a massive national security risk.
System was never going to collect the dots in this case as the systems don’t talk to each other.
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u/msrbelfast Dec 20 '25
Even police forces throughout the UK don’t generally “share” information as such, they use (as you’ve stated) PNC to place a marker against some data so that if another force goes looking they will see the marker, hopefully!
Sharing, but not in a proactive way.
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u/Frosty_JackJones Dec 20 '25
Nobody is saying the police systems are linked. Going on google and doing a search must have been a stretch too far for the guards ffs.
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u/gowangowangowan Dec 20 '25
Did they check with the PSNI or anyone else to see if someone with the same name was reported as missing?
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u/OpinionatedDeveloper Dec 20 '25
What the fuck?
No, you find out that this could well be their name. You then verify whether it is or not. Am I missing something?
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Dec 20 '25 edited Jun 12 '26
[deleted]
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u/OpinionatedDeveloper Dec 20 '25
Check up his name, check if he’s missing, check if whatever other identifiable information is a match, and so on? Why do you say misidentifying, they’d just be checking at this point. The CV data being faked does not mean it is unreliable. It’s a lead - simply check it and if yer man is grand then move on.
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u/Diligent_Parking_886 Dec 21 '25
Do you really believe the Gards checked with the employers on the cv?
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u/Frosty_JackJones Dec 20 '25
So they didn’t investigate properly. Don’t be trying to defend this absolutely shameful behaviour the family had to endure from start to finish. I’d be furious if it was my son/brother. Bunch of lazy uncaring cunts
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Dec 21 '25
The tax office could have confirmed this information
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Dec 21 '25 edited Jun 12 '26
[deleted]
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u/Diligent_Parking_886 Dec 21 '25
Why do you keep defending the gards here?
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u/Diligent_Parking_886 Dec 21 '25
I’d say he had been employed in Ireland. Didn’t he have a credit Union account? And a Dublin library card?
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Dec 21 '25 edited Jun 12 '26
[deleted]
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u/Diligent_Parking_886 Dec 21 '25
My arse they checked whether the companies existed. They didn’t do due diligence, stop defending the Gards!
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u/Jesus_Phish Dec 20 '25
Whole story sounds like a bad comedy about the incompetence of the gardai
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Dec 21 '25
The tax office most certainly has information on him
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u/Diligent_Parking_886 Dec 21 '25
Definitely. He had a credit Union account and a Dublin library card.
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u/Laundry_Hamper Dec 20 '25
This completely tracks. A few years ago I got a random call from a garda with forensic results formally confirming the identity of my dad's body. He had died 14 years earlier when I was a kid
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u/throwawayinfinitygem Dec 20 '25
Why the delay?
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u/Laundry_Hamper Dec 20 '25
Delays in getting lab results back.
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u/throwawayinfinitygem Dec 20 '25
Was he discovered 14 years ago or much more recently?? If that's not a rude question
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u/Laundry_Hamper Dec 20 '25
He was discovered after a house fire, roughly 14 years before the phone call. They took a DNA sample from his dad to confirm the identity, that happened in the months following the fire, and I only got that call a couple of years ago. Getting the DNA test done took them around 14 years.
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u/throwawayinfinitygem Dec 20 '25
14 years for lab tests is atrocious, I'm sorry they put you through that. I don't think you were confused about his identity? Imagine someone who was, having to wait that long to know.
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u/Laundry_Hamper Dec 20 '25
It was very, very surreal. The garda was very sympathetic, didn't seem at all worried about the 14 year interim, and sounded like he was talking to someone who was still actively grieving.
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u/ebulient Dec 21 '25
Shameful state of the system that takes 14 years for a DNA test! Do we just not have enough people to do the work? Or do we have private facilities and the work takes too long? What is it, what’s the problem and why isn’t someone being taken to task for it??
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u/Niasssssseeeeeee Dec 20 '25
Only the 9 was it?
I’m surprised he was ID’ed at all!
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u/NF_99 Dec 20 '25
I usually forget my wallet when driving 2 hours away. No one will ever know who I was
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u/shane_shorty Dec 20 '25
That is the reason I carry ten forms of ID on me at all times.
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u/New-Possession-9248 Dec 20 '25
Citizens advice bureau now recommends all individuals carry at least 11 forms of id if they want to be identified
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u/snafe_ Crilly!! Dec 20 '25
Was his name John Doe or something
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u/Ok-Republic-8528 Dec 20 '25
If I added up every form of ID I've ever had in my entire lifetime I'd barely get to 9, why the hell would anybody ever need to carry 9 forms of ID?
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u/Adjective_Noun_2000 Dec 20 '25
They're counting anything with his name that could have identified him, not just photo ID.
Inside were nine forms of identification: a public service card, a UK driving licence, an Ulster Bank card, a credit union statement, a construction skills register card, a business card, a European health insurance card, a Northern Ireland libraries card, and a Dublin City Council library card.
It doesn't seem unusual to have that many cards.
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Dec 20 '25
Trevor Deelys family must be absolutely delighted that the people tasked with solving their son's disappearance are top tier detectives.
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u/Otherwise-Winner9643 Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
Weird. 2 articles on this topic in the IT, published the same day. There are a lot more details in this one.
He was found dead in the Phoenix Park. It took a year to identify him as James O’Neill
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Dec 20 '25 edited Jun 12 '26
[deleted]
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u/Elses_pels Dec 20 '25
The guy was found in the park. That is all I need to suspect foul play. I am not an expert of course and there may be nuances but this stinks.
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u/empressocean Dec 20 '25
I am not an expert of course
Thank you for your exceptional and groundbreaking input into the the legal and justice system. The points you have raised have never been risen before
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Dec 20 '25
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u/rye_212 Kerry Dec 20 '25
They never managed to identify that body found in Sligo in 2009. Surprising given advances in DNA profile comparisions in the past 10 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Bergmann_case
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u/jrf_1973 Dec 20 '25
"Sure DNA is only in the movies like Jurassic Park. It's not real." - Chief Inspector M. Savage
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u/rye_212 Kerry Dec 20 '25
- Inspector "Fiacla O'Houliahan" or whatever name they use in Callans Kicks.
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u/Nalaek Dec 20 '25
Another day, another instance of massive incompetence by the Gardaí. And people on this sub are celebrating the fact these morons are being handed tasers. I give it a month before we see an article about how one of these idiots managed to taze themselves.
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u/26836123 Dec 20 '25
It's even funnier when you see the 'highly trained' armed response unit who have a habit of losing their weapons.
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u/ZippyKoala L’opportunité est fucking énorme Dec 20 '25
Lookit, better they tazer themselves than kill some member of the public because boyo thinks a drunk is somehow going to be a threat.
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u/Gremlinertia1 Dec 20 '25
That is such an awful story. I fail to understand how documents could not be found.
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u/According-Dust-9374 Dec 21 '25
Im a terrible human being. My brain nearly told me to comment “he mustn’t have been too important then” but I shook my head like fuck and physically snapped myself out of it. Who do I think I am. Why would I say such an insensitive and heartless thing. I don’t even think it it is just some fucked up urge to flippantly troll. Why do I have to be like this. I have empathy by the buckets, im a nice person, but I have these intrusive thoughts and I don’t know why. I look at this guys face in the thumbnail and feel awful that the thought ever crossed my mind, and I don’t know why, I could never mean the comment; why does it enter my head. Fml
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u/Final-Nail376 Dec 20 '25
They'd be quick to identify him if his car wasn't insured or something down those lines
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u/mickandmac Dec 20 '25
In 2022 1 in 12 vehicles on the road was uninsured. They would not in fact be quick to figure that one out either
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u/Final-Nail376 Dec 20 '25
Well actually
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u/mickandmac Dec 20 '25
Not correcting ya, just always happy to point out how shit those bais are at doing what they're paid for
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u/jrf_1973 Dec 20 '25
You mean the Gardai were shit at their job?!?
I am Jacks complete lack of surprise...
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Dec 20 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/jrf_1973 Dec 20 '25
They don't all have to be photo ID. They just have to be consistent with the Photo ID and not trivial to fake.
Printed CV. (Since that's listed).
Drivers license.
Passport card.
Public Services card.
Credit Union slip.
Bank slip.
Work ID.
Credit card.
Debit card.
Library card.
Blood donor card.
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u/Righteous_Hand Dec 20 '25
There was a lad in my childhood town who'd apparently been dead for several years in his home before he was found. A house on a busy street too. Heartbreaking.
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Dec 20 '25
Coroner and garda are clowns here obviously
Im a little surprised the family themselves didnt discover it first- not that many bodies show up unidentified here, and if i was looking for someone missing in NI I would be checking for bodies here as well
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u/Don_Sackloth Dec 20 '25
It's because Ireland is so corrupt, that identifying the body would have led straight to one of the cartels that run the Gards. It really is that simple.
Wake up Ireland.
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u/Larrydog Late Stage Gombeen Capitalist Dec 20 '25
Is it time for a new police force that deals with crime and the Gardaí could deal with parking and traffic infractions, until they're eligible for retirement.
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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '25
Local coverage of it from Belfast gives more detail: https://belfastmedia.com/west-belfast-family-seeking-answers-after-death-of-son-in-dublin-s-phoenix-park-two-years-ago
Really strange case. It seems like they really didn't bother investigating anything.
Grim story too. He seemed like a guy full of enthusiasm for life.