Stephen Gately’s Boyzone bandmates were distraught over the sudden loss of the man they called their ‘brother’
When Boyzone emerged blinking into the cloudy daylight on the morning of their bandmate Stephen Gately’s funeral, their grief was impossible to miss.
Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch and Mikey Graham’s eyes were rimmed with red, their faces etched with sorrow as they prepared to face one of the most heartbreaking occasions of their lives.
Just days earlier, the boys had flown to Majorca to bring Stephen’s body back following his sudden and shocking death from an undiagnosed heart condition at his holiday home.
And when his devastated mum worried that her son didn’t “like to be alone”, the men decided to hold an overnight vigil at St Laurence O’Toole Roman Catholic church, spending the night in sleeping bags the floor next to the 33-year-old’s coffin.
“We cried and we laughed and we could hear him telling us jokes and we could hear him answering back…” Ronan later told Sky News of the ‘beautiful, amazing’ experience.
At around 6am they emerged from the church and gave their sleeping bags to fans who’d spent the night outside.
By 9am, locals in the working class area of North Strand – where Stephen grew up – were out in their gardens.
